The Difference

Attitude checks are tough little buggers. Undertaking one isn’t as simple as giving yourself a swift kick in the butt or blinking your eyes and bobbing your head I Dream of Jeannie style. No, attitude checks are exercises of the heart and mind.

Vigilance and diligence are the name of their game. Pardon the cliché, but there’s no sleeping on the job with attitude checks. As when steering a car, you must be constantly aware, making adjustment for even the slightest bump or bend in the road. And (to commit the same writing faux pas), there’s no rest for the weary. Attitude checks don’t care if you’re having a day to rival Alexander’s terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. They don’t care if you’re tired, sick, stressed, PMSing, or (fill in the blank). They don’t care if you’ve been knocked down for the 10th time or the 24th time. Attitude checks are relentless taskmasters that are oblivious to everything.

So why do them?

I do them because I like to think that what’s on the other side will be worth it.

I like to think that as I slog up the monstrous hills that are usually my attitude checks, I’ll shed more than sweat and gain more than lungs screaming for oxygen and legs turning to rubber. I like to think that I’ll gain assurance from the ravines my path dips through, confidence from the gravelly patches I hesitantly cross, wisdom from the sections I backtrack through, strength from the obstacles I quash, and a new outlook from the behaviors and perspectives I shed along the way. I like to think that when I reach the pinnacle, I’ll be a better person—someone who’s better equipped to handle what life throws at me. Bad days will still happen, feelings are what keep us from becoming an “evolved” version of the human race that tries to take over the world, and problems don’t ever go away. But I like to think that what I gain from my attitude checks will allow me to approach these things with greater poise and handle them with greater grace.

I like to think.