'Attitude' that isn’t Boomer Talk
The colloquial meaning of the word “attitude” is confusing. We’ve turned it into something soft—vague compliments and complaints about a kid’s demeanor. Let’s restore it using aviation as an analogy: Attitude is object orientation in space.
You are the object. How you orient yourself mentally is your attitude.
As the pilot, you set your destination—we call that goalsetting, e.g. “I want to play Major League Baseball.” If your attitude remains aligned with that goal, then you are making progress. If it is oriented elsewhere, toward another destination, then the next question is, “Why?”
In other words, you’re not going to hear us talking about players having good or bad attitudes in some generic sense. Our approach is clinical: Player’s actions tell us the direction they are headed in. If a player is saying they want to be the best at baseball but acting in a manner deleterious to excellence, we have cause to investigate further.
And, that investigation isn’t about whether the player is being “bad” or “good” because we know that on the path toward any goal, there are headwinds and turbulence along the way:
Emotions. The rewards for trying are emotional feedback mechanisms, like fun and pride. The punishing feedback mechanisms are frustration, anger, disappointment, etc. The temptation to avoid the latter can push a player off course without their conscious knowing.
Ignorance. Society uses the term “ignorance” in a pejorative fashion. Here, it simply means not knowing. We are all mostly ignorant. We pursue gnosis to achieve our goals.
Time. When our goal is clear, it can be tempting to simulate “being there,” instead of attending to what’s needed to actually arrive. This is why you’ll see Little Leaguers pimping home runs, flipping bats, and donning sliding mitts. Some critique these as inherently bad acts. We do not. The question for a player is: Do you want to simulate being a Major Leaguer now or do you want to attend to the fundamentals necessary to actually arrive?
Social Pressure. Humans are genetically wired to care deeply about coherence with their social group. Every player will be on a team with a losing culture at some point. Those that excel to the highest levels, intentional or not, maintain an attitude of success whether they are surrounded by a winning or losing team culture. And, the same goes for team-external pressures. Social pressures off the field also have the potential to dramatically impact a player’s attitude.
Physiology. Tired? Hungry? Exhausted? Physical pain? Our physiology can have dramatic impacts on our conscious attitude, often in ways we don’t consciously recognize until we learn to observe it happening.
So, no more “good attitude” as a platitude. Attitude is about functional mindset.