ALTER ATTITUDE

A woman approached her friend for some poison to kill her hostile mother-in-law. Her friend cautioned her, ‘since, everyone knows that you hate her, it will be obvious that you killed her. Instead if you give her this slow poison every day, she will die in six months. In the meanwhile behave as if you love her. When she dies no one will suspect you.’

The woman started giving the poison to her mother-in-law; at the same time, she acted as if she loved her. Shortly, her mother-in-law began to reciprocate her love and caring attitude. Now, the woman no longer wanted her to die. She rushed to her friend to ask for an antidote. Her friend calmly replied, ‘what I gave you is harmless. I knew that if you changed your behaviour to your mother-in-law, she would reciprocate with positive feelings towards you.’

Surely, attitude is difficult to alter. But behaviour can be easily changed. A changed stimulus invites a transformed response. A renovated response gives rise to positive experiences which lead to positive outlook and affirmative thinking. And affirmative thinking leads to a positively altered attitude.

Mahatma Gandhi said it so well, ‘be the change you want to see in the world!’ So often, we crib about the negatives in others. But the attitude of others is also impacted by our own attitude that is reflected in our behaviour towards them. Surely, it would be better to alter our own behaviour to discover positive impacts that eventually result in transformed thinking and attitude on both sides!

To alter the attitude of the other seems wrong…
BE BETTER at altering your behavioural song!

- Pravin K. Sabnis