POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE THE CHOICE IS YOURS..

When we look at the types of things that we were exposed to during our early years, we recognize that a great majority of them were negative; and that, combined with the fact that during this same period we were developing 95% of our basic attitudes, begins to illustrate some important understanding.

CONSIDER THIS..

How many times have you presented a new idea to a group and had the first reaction be: We cant do that! or It will never work! or Weve never done it that way before!

How many times has this attitude prevented you from trying new and potentially profitable ideas?

With all the negatives and the implied permanence of the early conditioning, one other fact begins to surface here

Attitudes were developed, negative or positivetherefore, they can be changed, developed further or improved.

In fact, William James, the father of American Psychology, said: The greatest discovery of the Twentieth Century is the fact that a human being has the ability to change his attitude. You can change attitudes, but it must be a conscious attempt. Unless you make that attempt, because of the heavy negative influence during the early stages of your life, your basic thought processes tend to be expressed in terms of negatives of what you CANT do as opposed to what you CAN do.

Let me illustrate, what are your thought processes right now? Are they positive, receptive, and open-minded to what Im sharing with you? Are you thinking about all the things that will benefit you? Or, are you thinking about whats going to go wrong, how it can fail, how you are unique and maybe it wont work for you? Or, maybe just kind of warykind of it sounds good, but I gotta seeee,

Let me give you one more example. Are you familiar with Parkinsons Law? It states: Work expands to the time available. Im sure that you have seen the results of this rule.

Have you ever noticed that when you have a lot to do, your attitude changes, and more work is produced in a day than when business is slower? What benefits would you receive if that attitude prevailed all the time?

ATTITUDE DEVELOPMENT / SPACED REPETITION

How do we continue to develop attitudes? We develop them in exactly the same way they were initially developed through repetition. Actually, if you are exposed to an idea one time, after one day you have forgotten 50% of it, after two days you have forgotten 75% of it, and the percentage continues to decrease until after sixteen days, it is estimated that you only retain about 2% of that original idea. On the other hand, if you are exposed to an idea six times over a period of six days, you will retain more than 62% for life. An example of this would be the times tables.

How much is four times two?

Eight times four?

Six times seven?

Let me give you another example of the power of spaced repetition. Can you finish this jingle? Two all beef patties (special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun.) Now, how many of you consciously made an attempt to memorize what McDonalds puts on their hamburgers? The power of repetition is tremendous. Most importantly, its not a conscious kind of retention you probably havent thought about that jingle for years but when I stimulated it, you responded automatically. The same thing is true with our attitudes. Its not a conscious kind of response. Its a reflex stimulated by the occasion, problem, or situation.

Can you see how spaced repetition works? Can you see how you begin to behave automatically based on something you have heard enough times?

Program yourself for success; replace your CANT DOS with CAN DOS Use the simple power of spaced repetition to develop new positive attitudes that will drive your development as a person; that will enable you to live a richer and fuller life, and to achieve more of what youre capable of.