By Ben Tyler, 925 Owner and Head Coach

I was once told “attitude is everything” from an experienced HR manager I knew a long time ago. Those words are more foundational to joy, health, success and overall well-being than most may realize.

All of us can think of those people we’ve encountered that are genuinely joyful. You rarely see them without a smile, catching up with someone, greeting people, laughing, and simply having fun with life. Some people call them “lightning rods” due to the fact that they energize everyone around them and after talking with or seeing them, you leave with a more positive attitude.

These people are also amazing to work around. Positive people look at challenges and difficulties very differently than most. They see tough situations and problems as opportunities to grow, to get better, and as chances to solve problems for others. Negative thinkers look at situations with disdain (think Eor from WInny the Pooh) and have a hard time thinking outside of the box to deal with novel issues.

Positive people tend to think differently, they take problems piece by piece and fix or solve what they can, then look at the next part of the problem. They’re thankful to have the opportunity to grow through struggle or help another person with a tough situation as best they can.

Simply put, positive people see solutions and growth, negative people see problems and reasons why something can’t be solved.

Going back to the “attitude is everything” statement, we see this often at 925. When someone walks in the door looking for help, their attitude can tell us much about their future possibility of success. This isn’t to say someone coming in with a poor attitude can’t succeed, part of what we do is help people improve their attitude and optimism about their future, but, it does tell us where we’re starting. A person coming in with an open mind and optimism who needs help getting healthy and fit will be able to plug right into our culture and start to see success quickly. There’s a reason we cover our culture and how we help people succeed in our Essentials sessions before they start classes: helping them learn to be optimistic and excited about the future drastically increases their future success.

For our team, Joy is one of our Core Values. We define it as “maintaining a positive, optimistic, and thankful attitude and atmosphere.” We have been blessed to work in a place where we get the opportunity to be a positive, joyful part of our clients lives each day. In order to do that, we ourselves need to keep an eye on our attitudes and make sure we’re leading every day as well!

Proverbs 18:21 says “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” and considering we speak from our attitude’s guidance many times and we’re working with people every day, it’s imperative we keep an eye on our attitude in every situation. Words can build people up (our goal at 925) or tear them down, if we’re not careful.

925’s culture is unique, but each of our lives, workplaces are unique as well. We have the ability to go to those places, live life with our family and friends, and be a positive, joyful, optimistic, uplifting person and see those around us flourish because of it, or, we can be negative and watch our poor attitude spread and spiral around us. Even if you aren’t the most positive person currently, just thinking about being more joyful each day and in as many situations as you can, you will see a change for the better.

I challenge you to try to be joyful today… see what happens :)