It’s no secret that your attitude determines your potential for ‘success’ in relationships, career, even your internal ‘success’ with yourself.  After all, we’ve all heard the ol’ saying “Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude”.  Examine your attitude/beliefs/thoughts.  Are they helping or hurting you?

My previous blog post focused on change, and looked at different responses that people may have to change.  At the end of it, I asked you to consider the question posed in the title of this post, without any context.  This post is an extension of that discussion. Let me bring you further ‘into the light’ on the monkey and the kitten.

The reason I ask the question is tied to two basic attitudes, related to how each animal deals with stress and change.  Think about how a kitten responds when in danger or is confused.  It will nearly be paralyzed with fright and meow until its mother arrives to carry it off to safety.  Kind of a victim mentality.  By contrast, consider a baby monkey faced with a similar situation.  At the first sign of trouble the baby monkey seeks out its mother, jumps on her back and rides off safety…all the while holding on.

Two similar themes here, but different approaches.  Both animals recognize that they need help to manage the situation. However, the monkey plays an active role in it’s flight to safety, while that of the kitten is rather passive.

Coaching a ‘kitten’ can be very challenging, and unless one can breakthrough the ‘victim’ mentality of a kitten, it often yields unsustainable results.  Coaching is ideally suited for ‘monkeys’ – those willing to actively work on themselves, and enjoy the fruit which that work can bring.  Not to fret if you’re a ‘kitten’, there is hope.  Coaching can help eliminate the attitude of being helpless, by dismantling that victim mentality, it’s just a little more work than coaching a ‘monkey’.  The results after the breakthrough, however, can be no less than spectacular.

And so, I ask the question again: “Are You A Baby Monkey Or A Kitten?”