Maria Gonzalez Blog
Mindful Leadership
We Have the Freedom to Choose Our Attitude
Every day carries with it its hardships, its struggles, its aspirations, and its joys. It all depends how we choose to look at it, and what we wish to embrace, moment by moment. There is so much over which we have no control in life. Yet, what we can control is our attitude; no one can dictate that for us.
Victor Frankl, in Man’s Search for Meaning stated it beautifully. “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken away from a man, but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
This quote speaks to the power we all hold within ourselves. We all have the power to be Mindful leaders, which includes choosing our attitude. I am not exclusively referring to those in positions of formal power when I speak of leaders. I am referring to every one of us. A leader is anyone who is in a position to influence another being for any period of time. That pretty well includes us all. But, to be a Mindful leader is a choice. And our attitude is a key component of that. Our attitude impacts our lives and the lives of those around us.
If you wish to practice a strategy, you may consider in the morning upon rising, spending a couple of minutes being deliberate about your attitude. Determine your intention for the day and how you will approach life. An example might be that you may decide to be positive towards every circumstance that comes your way. That does not mean you sugar coat a bad situation. It may just mean that no matter what life throws your way, you approach it from a place of creativity and opportunity. Every difficulty can also hold within it a “nugget of gold”.
Here is a link to a 1.5 minute interview with Dr. Ellsworth Wareham, a 100 year old retired heart surgeon talking about attitude, and making a contribution, among other topics. His philosophy is simple, “you do the best you can, and the things you can’t do anything about, don’t give any thought to them”. http://youtu.be/hGQTpxjbwaM
I would like to thank Rob Quartly for the video link.
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