FACTORS THAT DETERMINE YOUR ATTITUDE:

                                                                     Let me ask you: Are we born with attitudes or do we develop them as we mature? What are the factors that form our attitudes? If you have a negative outlook on life because of your environment, can you change your attitude?

Most of our attitudes were shaped during our formative years.

While we were born with tendencies toward temperaments, there are three factors that largely determine our attitude formation. These are the triple E's of attitude:

1. environment

2. experience

3. education.

Let's evaluate each of these factors individually.

Environment:

Environment consists of the following:

• Home: positive or negative influences

• School: peer pressure

• Work: supportive or over-critical supervisor

• Media: television, newspapers, magazines, radio, movies

• Cultural background

• Religious background

• Traditions and beliefs

• Social environment

• Political environment

All these environments create a culture. Everyplace be it a home, organization, or a country has a culture. For example, you've probably been to a store where you found managers to sales clerks alike to be polite, helpful, friendly and cheerful. Yet at another shop you find the staff rude and discourteous.

You go to a home and find the parents and children well-behaved, courteous and considerate. You go to another home where everyone is fighting like cats and dogs.

In countries where the government and political environment is honest, generally you will find that the people are honest, law abiding and helpful. And the reverse is true too. In a corrupt environment, an honest person has a hard time. Where as in an honest environment, a corrupt person has a tough time. "In a positive environment, a marginal performer's output goes up. In a negative environment, a good performer's output goes down.

Culture in any place always goes from the top down, never from the bottom up. We need to step back and look at what kind of environment we have created for ourselves and those around us. It is tough to expect positive behavior in a negative environment. In societies !where lawlessness becomes the law, honest citizens become cheats, crooks and dacoits.

 Take some time to evaluate how the environment that you are in affects you, and the one you create affects others.

Experiences:

Our behavior changes according to our experiences with various people. If we have a positive experience with a person, our attitude towards him is likely to be positive and conversely negative experiences tend to make us cautious. Experiences and events become reference points in our lives, we draw conclusions which serve as guidelines for the future

Education:

Education refers to both formal and informal education. We are drowning in information but starving for know-ledge and wisdom. Strategically applied, knowledge translates into wisdom which in turn translates into success.

The role of the educator is vital. A teacher affects eternity. The ripple effect is immeasurable. Education ought to teach us not only how to make a living but also how to live.