What determines Attitude?

Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been thinking about how my reactions to certain situations have been. The past year hasn’t necessarily been the most peachy, nor can I claim it to be a total wash-out. But what really struck me is the change in my behavior or reactions to certain issues. It intrigued me to try to decipher if this is due to a change in my attitude or if it was just a phase?

I remember myself, during my years through school and college, up until my first post-grad degree, as a quiet introvert character, although also very impatient for results. I also used to get angry over things, especially when the results weren’t forthcoming or they weren’t exactly as expected. During that time, I used to feel deflated, crabby, and rude to the extent of making me probably a little too annoying to my audience. In essence, I had this whole negativity visibly emanating from my being. (Maybe taking things to a little of an extreme here, but people who’ve seen me at the time, know what I’m trying to say here.)

But lately, I have become more prone to be cynical or even satirical and try to laugh off some situations/issues when they seem to be going awry, in spite of not seeing a visible change in my impatient streak. Does this mean I’m thinking in a positive light, and accepting that things really can’t almost always happen like I expect them to? If that is so, then it means that I’ve learnt some patience on the way, which is a good thing. But what if I’m using this method to veil my negativity or the anger of not achieving the result? Is that a good thing?

Which brings me my next question, If attitude is broadly classified as positive and negative, what attributes define attitude – the ability to shrug off an undesired issue, by using whatever means, or the ability to convert the undesired into a desired result?

Also, in case anyone has the time to read this post, how do you deal with dips in your attitude?