Your Attitude: Your Best and Worst Public Relations

Posted by Alexander Irving under General

Your attitude …

…  in every situation in life, is what sets the standard and the stage for what happens to you daily. What you get …  and what you don’t get.  This is true if you are being interviewed by an editor, working with a salon staff member, talking to your spouse, shopping in a store … any conversation or personal exchange in your life. How you turn your ‘lemons into lemonade’ by responding instead of reacting makes all the difference.

I don’t have an attribution for what follows, but it is such an excellent message I’ll simply share it anyway. The best I can do is credit Anne Vasey (Anne works with Sharon and I) who sent it to us the other day.

Be A Thermostat

Not long ago I called to order a pizza. I had called this restaurant dozens of times before. When you call, the first thing they always ask for is your telephone number. Since I was so familiar with the routine, when a young lady answered the phone and, I answered very friendly and politely said, “Hello. My phone number is (713)…” and I gave her the rest of my number.

When I did that, you would have thought I had just totally insulted her. She practically screamed in my ear in the rudest voice you can imagine, “Sir! I am not ready for your phone number. And when I get ready, I will ask you for your phone number!” I wanted to say, “Lady, I will give you my phone number whenever I feel like giving you my phone number! I will call you at midnight and give you my phone number if I want to.” But down in my spirit, I didn’t want to hear it, I could hear that still, small voice coming up inside saying, ” be a thermostat, not a thermometer. You may have walked into a room that’s 200 degrees, but you have the controls. You can bring it down.” I thought to myself, “Yeah, right. It will take me six years with this lady!”

But I realized she didn’t have anything against me. She was just having a bad day. Something was irritating her. So I decided I was going to do everything I could to cheer her up. I started thinking of everything I could possibly compliment her on. And God knows I had to use my imagination! I said, “Ma’am, I just want to thank you for answering that phone so quickly and taking such good care of me. You guys make the best pizzas in the world. Your delivery is always on time. You run such a great organization.” On and on I went telling her all these compliments. Do you know by the time I got finished, she was throwing in hot wings and Dr. Pepper and coupons for more pizza? I had won her over. What happened? I became a thermostat instead of a thermometer.

A thermostat changes the environment by bringing the temperature up or down. Through self-control and wisdom, you can do the same in situations and in the lives of others around you.

You overcome evil with good. In your life, when you deal with those who are negative, critical, rude and short-tempered, you don’t have to let them infect you. You can infect them. You don’t have to be a part of the majority; you can live in the minority. You can act as a thermostat, one who changes the temperature and the attitudes of those around you.

When you go to work, people may be singing the blues, complaining about the boss, complaining about the economy, talking about how bad somebody is treating them. Don’t join in and say, “Oh, you think you have it bad? Let me tell you about my problems! My teenager won’t straighten up. I think I’m going to have to have surgery on my back. My insurance has doubled. We didn’t qualify for that new home we really wanted.” No, when you talk defeat, you draw in defeat. Don’t let them influence you and draw out the worst. You can make the choice and act as a thermostat. Yes, you may have those problems going on, but your attitude should be, “Yes, I may have some problems. Yes, it may be difficult, but I know this too shall pass.” Or, “Yes, it’s true I may have to have surgery, but I know I will come out better off than I was before.” And “No, we didn’t qualify for that new home, but I’m not discouraged. I know there is something better in store.”

That’s a thermostat. You didn’t let them pull you down. You pulled them up. You’re not talked into getting defeated, dragging through life with no enthusiasm, letting every negative voice influence you. No, you can choose to live life as a thermostat. When you walk into a room, you change the atmosphere!

Photo by Dr Craig

We’d love to hear your experiences

6 responses to “Your Attitude: Your Best and Worst Public Relations”

  1. Sondra Thrasher says:

    Thank you for this post! I absolutely, positively LOVED it! May I use it in my next newsletter? I think many may benefit from this simple, yet poignant reminder. 🙂

  2. Of course Sondra. We’d be pleased as punch.

    Everything here is in the public domain. Your reprinting it, hopefully with an attribution line and including a link to the blog along with a recommendation helps us grow our readership/subscribers.

    Our purpose with beautyprpro is to grow our fans/readers/subscribers and thus grow the number of people who know what we do and how well we do it. We give lots of good stuff away and those interested in our specific niche, who see and like our style may someday want to buy something from us. But first, they have to know we exist. 🙂
    .-= Alexander Irving´s last blog ..Your Attitude: Your Best and Worst Public Relations =-.

  3. Melissa Steele says:

    Yes I agree with your post,its great! I think often people dont see if you change your attitude just alittle everything around you gets better.

  4. Indeed Melissa. Great to see you here. Interesting more Ambassadors aren’t finding interesting places to have conversations and get themselves out there in places different from their immediate world. People don’t forget that sort of thing. Social Media at its best 🙂

  5. Melissa Steele says:

    Hi Alex,
    I agree! Let me know if you have anymore ideas where I could get out there I like Social Media but still kinda new to it besides Facebook & myspace. Great seeing you guys today!

  6. Melissa. Email me directly and I’ll set you out a few ideas you can do to begin to develop a larger profile in the social media world. When we’re through I’ll put all the suggestions together as a post here on BeautyPRpro.