The first step in being attractive is a good attitude, and a good attitude is entirely a matter of choice.
Those of you who have been receiving my newsletter for a while have seen many letters from women complaining about their husband's wimpy, wussy, defeatist attitudes and how much of a turn-off they are. We're going to dig a little deeper into fixing that today.
Guys, in case you haven't noticed, when you bitch, whine, and moan about how things are just crappy, you can't get ahead no matter what you do, everything and everybody is against you, or "the system" is stacked against you and responsible for your present situation, or you're some kind of victim, there are two things that you can be absolutely sure of:
1. Nobody wants to hear it
2. Nobody believes it for a second
The rest of us know that your life is what you choose to make of it, within the limit of your ability. How you deal with that is what determines your level of success, your self-confidence and self-esteem, and how people react to you - specifically, whether they want to spend time with you because they find you interesting and enjoyable to be around.
The good news is that how you deal with life is entirely your choice. Let's take an extreme example to make the point clear, and then apply the principle to more common situations in everyday life. Let's say you're walking down the street, looking wussy, staring at your feet as you shuffle down the sidewalk, shoulders slumped, pouting, and looking like you're having a crappy day and want the world to know about it...
Out of nowhere, a stranger steps up in front of you, draws a fist back behind him, and punches you squarely in the face, BAM! He hits you so hard you land squarely on your ass about five feet back from where you were standing. What do you do? It's your choice, right?
Do you sit and cry because the mean old stranger just walked up and punched you in the face, wanting everyone to feel sorry for you so somebody else will hit him back for you or call the police?
Do you stand up, mad as a wet hen, and punch him back, because you're suddenly feeling violent and wanting revenge?
Do you stand up and realize that the man just woke you up to the fact that you were being a wuss and knocked you on your ass to prove to you that you could get back up on your feet and carry on, and thank him for the reminder?
Do you stand up and realize that the man just did something that you're not capable of doing, and ask him to instruct you in how to do it?
Do you stand up and realize that the man who just hit you may have thought you were someone else, and simply ask why he hit you to get to the bottom of it?
Do you stand up and tell him that you're running a two-for-one sale today, and that for the paltry sum of 500, you'll let him do it again?
Do you stand up and ask him if he has any last words or wants to say goodbye to his wife and kids before you dispatch him?
Any one of those choices, and many more, are yours to make! I know at least one individual who would have responded as described in each of those examples; that's how I came up with the examples! How you respond to the situation is entirely your choice, and nobody else's, and you should make it the most positive and productive choice possible.
No, this isn't a head game. It's truly how you choose to perceive and receive the situation, and what's more, choose how you respond to it. You're not choosing among various lies to tell yourself, but from among various results of what's happening in front of you. How many of these choices do you get to make during the day? You may well be shocked if you watch for them and count them.
Let's say one of your coworkers comes into your office and tells you about something new he's learned to do and that the boss has complimented him or her on it. You can choose to label the coworker as a brownnoser and talk trash about them around the office to try to get them fired, or you can recognize that if your company makes more money, your job is more secure and your retirement contribution will be bigger, and you can recognize that this new skill may help your own career, and therefore ask the coworker to show you this new skill.
Your choice is therefore between seeing your coworker's discovery as an insult or as an opportunity for you to make yourself more valuable to your company and give them a reason to pay you more. That choice should be a no-brainer. Truth be told, you could be a slimy worm who gets the coworker to show you his new skill and then makes up a lie to get him fired, but if you're that much of a scumbag, there's nothing I can do for you, and I'd appreciate it if you'd unsubscribe right now. I'm helping men, not predators and parasites.
Another example: Your boss comes in and says that the job you've had and utterly hated for the last two years is being terminated, and you're being moved to another department to a job that you've tried to get transferred to several times in the past. It pays a little less than you make now and what you thought you'd made if you transferred, but it does have advancement opportunities.
Do you whine and complain about having to make an unexpected change and gripe about being unappreciated because you're taking a slight pay cut, or do you choose to see that you're finally free of the job you hate and being moved somewhere that you can better both your job and your pay and go at your new job with gusto and start realizing the changes you sought in the past? Another no-brainer, or so you'd think...
I saw two people at a company for which I was consulting quit in this very scenario. Their pay was being reduced by a whole 10 per week (1% of their weekly pay) until the end of the quarter (about eight weeks from then) when a new budget would take effect, and I know for a fact that both of them were blowing far more than that every week buying coffee and single packs of cigarettes at a convenience store on the way to work every morning instead of making coffee at home for the drive to work and buying their cigarettes in a carton each week. They had that same negative, short-sighted attitude, and chose to be insulted rather than see opportunity. And they constantly complained about the lack of attention their wives showed them, too. Gee, I wonder why? ;-)
I saw a great example of attitude a yesterday on Facebook, too:
Katherine
I don't know just how many more lemons I can stand in life! LOL My timing is soooo bad.
Comments:
Teresa: Yeah I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sick of lemonade!
David: I like lemonade. With a bit of lime juice, some salt, ice and tequila, it turns into great margaritas!
So there you go. If life hands you lemons, you make lemonade, and if you get tired of lemonade, kick it up another notch by adding ingredients for margaritas and invite some friends over. Then get back to business. ;-)
I started to list several more examples of how you can choose to see adversity or opportunity, but rather than do that, I'm going to invite you to try to spot them around you, and write to me by replying to any edition of my newsletter or by posting comments to this post on my forum at http://forum.makingherhappy.com and we'll revisit this topic in a few days and compare notes.
Meanwhile, let me be very clear about this: There's little you can do to make your wife, girlfriend, friends, siblings, coworkers, or anybody else want to avoid you any more than by consistently choosing to frame everything that happens in a negative context, and little you can do that will help your relationship with your partner and everybody else by keeping a positive attitude and looking for opportunity. It's heroic, therefore romantic, and an attribute that is found in all effective leaders, and hence, trips those biological attraction triggers that bring women, especially the one you love, closer and closer to you.
It is indeed one of the first steps I look for opportunity to take in every intervention for a couple in crisis, because it is so important and because it is something that can be changed almost instantly, which is in turn because it is so purely a matter of personal choice. Positive attitude gets positive results, and negative attitude gets negative results. 'Nuff said.
It doesn't matter how bad you think your relationship - or your life - is, you will find what you look for with equal ease, whether it's insult or opportunity. (You may recall a famous quote by Henry Ford: "Whether you think you can or you can't, you're absolutely right!") Look for the opportunity, and when you find it, use it to achieve something, even if it's only something small. Small chains of successes add up to self-confidence and big successes. Yes, that's a choice, too.
Speaking of opportunity, how many times must I offer you the opportunity to know what every man needs to know about women before you stop bitching about me trying to sell you something in a free newsletter or a blog post and realize that what I'm offering you is something you've looked for all your life and thought you'd never find, and that it's not even going to cost you as much as a good meal for two? That's right Big Guy, opportunity is knocking here and now, and once again, you can choose whether to be insulted or to grab that opportunity and make the most of it. If you want to be a whiner, that's your right and choice to make, but...
If you want to be one of us guys who people love to be around and who knows what every woman wishes all men - especially their partner - knew, then jump over to http://www.makingherhappy.com and grab your copy of "THE Man's Guide to Great Relationships and Marriage" and make the change. That's your right, and your choice to make, too!
In the meantime, live well, be well, and have a wonderful day!
David Cunningham "Being a man is something to which one should aspire, not something for which he should apologize." --David Cunningham
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