Our attitude serves as the “inner sunglasses“. They shape how we perceive everything around us. Make sure you choose some pretty cool sunglasses. 
Garrett Westerwell: Attitude is the one thing or one of the few things that we can control. He says a positive attitude is more likely to see the good in the world. One of the ways you can practice apositive attitude is shifting from I have to versus I get to.
What's up, Cadre? My name is Garrett Westerwell. I'm your residential sports psychology expert as part of our Cadre community. Happy Monday. And I'll just answer the question right away, as I'm sure you're wondering why the heck I'm wearing these lovely sunglasses. It's because it has a great connection to what I want to talk about today, which is attitude. And the reason I'm wearing sunglasses in regards to attitude is simply because of this. Attitude can be summed up in a lot of different ways, and there's a lot to it.
But in the most simple form or the simple description, I like to think about it as our inner sunglasses. Okay. If you have blue sunglasses in that blue tint, you're gonna see the world as blue. If you have yellow sunglasses with a yellow tint, you're gonna see the world is yellow. Same thing with our attitude. It's the one thing or one of the few things that we can control, and we get to choose how we practice our attitude. So if we have that in a simplistic form, a positive attitude, we're more likely to be optimistic.
We're more likely to see the good in the world, and we're more likely to feel better and act better, because attitude influences our thoughts and also our behaviors. Same way, if you have a negative attitude that you choose, you're more likely to be pessimistic and see the negative and the bad in the world and feel and act accordingly. All right. So make sure you wear some nice sunglasses with your attitude. One of the few things or a few ways you can practice a positive attitude is this simple little trick that I like to describe as shifting from I have to versus I get to.
So if you have to do something that doesn't sound very fun, right. I won't go into that thing with much effort or positivity, versus I get to go to something that's a lot more positive, and you can see the optimism that can be present in that. I had a great football coach in high school who taught me this concept. We were practicing deep into the playoffs. We were a good team. And at that time, we were practicing in, I believe, early to mid November. It was high school playoff football in Wisconsin.
If you're from the midwest, you know how that goes. If you're not from the midwest, you can guess how cold it is right after practicing that sport for months and months and months, you get tired, you get cold. And myself included and other teammates were very keen on the essence of, oh, I have to go to practice today. It's so cold. I have to. I have to do this. I have to go to weights. Our coach told us this. We don't have to do it. We get to do it. There's a lot of players at your age that won't get this deep into the playoffs.
You don't have to. You get to, okay. Even though it's cold, even though it sucks in, you know, mid November in Wisconsin, you didn't have to do it. You got to do it. You earn that right. You are passionate about this. You get to do something similarly to you if you have. Have to go to a meeting tomorrow on your Tuesday, just even if you technically do have to change it. Change that phrasing into I get to. I have to until I get to. That's the simplest way you can shift your attitude in a quick second.
Also, our attitude is one of the few things that we can control. A lot of times we get lost in. Lost in the sauce of what's all out there, things that we can't control. Our effort and our attitude and our ability to help our team is one of the few things, one of the three things that we can really, truly control. So if you can control your attitude, you can control your inner sunglasses. Which brand would you choose? Would you choose a cheap two dollar pair that'll break upon three tries and you're not even gonna look good.
They're not gonna really block the sun. They're not gonna do their purpose. Or would you choose the most expensive brand or even. Not even that, but just the coolest brand that you can think of? Maybe they have little trees on them, or maybe I have another pair, too. I came prepared. Maybe they have little Christmas trees on them like this. Which pair of sunglasses would you choose? In other words, which attitude would you choose? It's one of the few things we can control. One of the few things that we get domestic.
Why not try to put a more positive lens on things when we can? Obviously, there's things that do suck. They are negative inherently. But let's try to switch a little bit into I have to into I get to. All right, that's all I got for you. I hope this propels you to a great week moving forward on this Monday. So for the rest of the week, try to choose your sunglasses. Make sure they're a nice pair like mine are, and choose your attitude. Go out and crush it. Have a good attitude, and I hope you liked the sunglasses.
Appreciate y'all. Bye.
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