Is Attitude Measurable?
August 20, 2012 – 8:04 am 
This was just posted to my page by someone who feels emotionally hurt that I am posting tools for achieving goals: “You successful people all think you are able to measure success while unsuccessful people feel themselves measured all the time. I am not even interested if my attitude towards it leads to success or not.”
Let us take a candid evaluation of the statement.
Firstly, is success measurable? No, if you do not establish a quantifiable goal and establish a timeline scheduling incremental development, then success is immeasurable. However, even quality can be subjectively measured; such as technique in martial arts, flow in dance, virtuosity in gymnastics and elegance in mathematics. If you set a goal and deadline, and track the increments, you can assess if your tools are contributing to your success or detracting from it.
When one feels unsuccessful, one can feel emotionally judged by those offering methods, techniques and strategies for quantifying, measuring and scheduling success. I understand this completely, coming from impoverishment. It can feel very challenging to shift from self-criticism of character worth to self-critique of behavioral effectiveness. You are worthwhile and good, even if one of your behaviors isn’t effectively serving you. To gain access to effective tools, we must differentiate between subjective feelings of low esteem and objective evaluation of the strategies which do not serve us.
If you do not care if your attitude leads to successfully achieving your goals, it probably will not. If you truly feel apathetic, you cannot love the pure version of yourself you’re allowing to erupt into the world. But even feigning apathy infects everything you think and do. As Gandhi stated, “Keep thoughts positive for they become words; keep words positive for they become behaviors; keep behaviors positive for they becomes habits; keep habits positive for they become values; keep values positive for they become destiny.” It begins and ends with attitude; the means happen only as a result of it.
Very Respectfully,
Scott Sonnon
www.facebook.com/ScottSonnon
