Positive Mental Attitude | The IT Career Builders Toolkit

Throngs of books line the shelves. From business to self-help to parenting, the idea of positive mental attitude (PMA) permeates our culture. Everyone has an angle on how to improve your PMA and how it benefits you and the people around you.

These people are correct. Certainly, PMA is critical to advancing in life. Lack of motivation breeds a lack of energy, which, in turn, creates a lack of action. Lack of action is a seal of doom on career advancement. This is particularly true in a performance-based career such as information technology (IT).

PMA Is Not a Panacea

PMA is not a panacea. It does not, in and of itself, produce anything. In fact, although I certainly do not knock those who write, promote, and sell PMA books and seminars, I am also a pragmatist. Without a go-forward plan, the rah-rah high that is achieved at many such seminars is lost within weeks or even days because of a lack of direction.

Few things are as unmotivating as being hyped to action and having no place to put that energy. You leave an event, excited about your life prospects, but you suddenly discover that you have no plan of action. The effect is a slow disillusionment with your previous excitement.

PMA and a Plan

The goal of this book is to foster the PMA needed to create action, coupled with a plan that has achievable steps in a particular area. I have covered why IT is a great career. In coming chapters, I provide tools and a plan of action to put those tools to use.

In this chapter, you will discover attitudes that lend themselves to success. The concrete plan of action that is used both to create your toolkit and to put it to use will bolster this attitude, providing an outlet of action for the energy.

This is the type of PMA I enjoy. I call it "PMA with a plan." It provides a means to achieving the objectives and goals that created the PMA to begin with. It becomes a self-feeding energy. You will find, as you move through the creation of your toolkit, that concrete steps do more to foster a positive attitude than any high-powered coaching can.