How Is Your Altitude?
MESSAGE FROM  NACFM PRESIDENT GARY ROBINSON

Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude. – Zig Ziglar

In 1980, I was in the corporate world. At 25, I was one of the top managers for a Fortune 500 company. One day I received a call from a regional manager who would later offer me a promotion to a branch twice as profitable of my current one. The first question he asked was, “How is your altitude?” When I asked what he meant by that, he told me that he wanted to know about my attitude on my job, the company, our services and the future. As it turned out, he offered me the job and I accepted. Weeks later when we were working together, I asked about his attitude inquiry. He explained that a great attitude was one of his major factors in determining who he hired. He explained that he could look at the branch performance standings and tell that I was a good manager, trainer, and salesman. He acknowledged that those were important factors in determining future success, but attitude trumped them all. As I thought about his approach, I was reminded of several employees who had all the skills to be successful but weren’t. The common factor was a negative attitude.

Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens. – Khalil Gibran 

I am inherently a positive person. I am the glass is half full guy. My outlook has been described as a Pollyanna viewpoint. In fact, one of the personality tests I have taken describes me as potentially overly optimistic. I seemed to be wired that way and I am thankful for that. I have read that, in general, optimistic people are healthier and live longer. As a side note, I am aware that my extremely positive outlook drives some people crazy. 

For most people, including myself, our attitude is affected by our current circumstances. It is easy to be positive when everything is going great. At the same time, it is much harder to keep that smile when you are up to your neck in hungry alligators. I also realize that a strong faith in our Lord can produce positive feelings and attitudes when circumstances are dire. A phone call this morning reminded me of this.

A few days ago, I received word that a young man who is a former employee had been in a serious motorcycle accident. Anytime the words accident and motorcycle are used together it usually isn’t good. He was headed home late at night when a car pulled out in front of him. After the impact, he saw his motorcycle catch fire as the driver of the car sped off. When he stood up, he saw his arms dangling, broken with the bones exposed. After a couple of steps, he fell to the ground in immense pain unable to stand or push himself up. Besides the broken arms, he had a broken toe, broken hip, two broken pelvic bones and some minor internal injuries. He was admitted to the ICU at Vanderbilt Hospital. Visitors and phone calls were not allowed.

Back to the phone call I received this morning…. When I looked at my screen, I saw the call was from that young man who had been hurt in the accident. I told him how happy I was to hear from him and asked how he was. “Blessed’ was his reply. That was certainly not the reply I was expecting. I expected to hear about the pain, the surgeries, the pins, the screws and the metal plate holding his pelvis together. Surely, he would express his anger at the person who hit him and fled the scene. I expected to hear about the memorial service for his motorcycle. Even before the accident, his life wasn’t rosy. Among some of his difficulties, was a car that wasn’t running and some serious family problems.

Here was a man rejoicing and giving thanks that there were no head, neck, or back injuries. He was focused on his gratitude list instead of his recovery time. Sure, he wants to get his bike replaced, but he wasn’t mired in anger at his unknown “assailant”.

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. – Ephesians 4:31 

So here we are in 2020, still dealing with the COVID virus. Our jobs are harder, and our budgets are smaller. Many of us have employees that must stay home with kids that should be in school. We are being hammered with negative news from around the world. Our nation is more politically divided than I can remember. Fights are breaking out over silly things, like whether or not to wear a face mask. People are just mad. It would be very easy to lose our positivity and dwell on the negative. For many of us, we are fighting for our sanity, if not our lives. It would be so easy to let a negative attitude take the joy out of our lives and our ministries.

Gary Robinson 
NACFM President