I believe there is truly an immense power in my attitude. I believe the results in my life relate directly to my attitude. One day I read these words:
"THE GREATEST DISCOVERY OF MY GENERATION IS THAT HUMAN BEINGS CAN ALTER THEIR LIVES SIMPLY BY ALTERING THEIR ATTITUDE"
In the same day of reading that statement, I over heard a woman in line at a check out counter. She was stating on what a bad day she was having and how unlucky she was. I put my two cents into the conversation and suggested she stop confirming her bad luck. Her son, who was traveling with her, agreed by saying, "That's why she's so unlucky, she is always complaining about having bad luck". I recognized that the woman was clearly creating her own bad luck with her negative attitude and was sharing it with anyone who would listen.
Understanding this has taught me to shape my life by changing my attitude about the each situation. Working on this, I have developed a positive mental attitude, which in turn has created a positive life.
For years, I did not know what I wanted to do with myself. I only knew what I did not want to do, how I did not want to do it, where I did not want to do it and whom I did not want to do it with. Loving my life from such a negative perspective obviously produced negative results. I noticed I was not happy alone with myself. I was constantly searching in all the wrong places for my life's missing ingredients. Then I finally found what I had been looking for, I found the answer lay inside me all along: a change of attitude. My old attitude told me that life was the pits and that became my truth. Changing my attitude caused my life to change, giving me a new-truth. Looking through dusty glasses is never really what it appears to be. Life is more.
Quickly, let us examine “Attitude” more closely and see how we actually do control our lives by controlling what we thing and how we think about it.
The dictionary defines “attitude” as a state of mind or feeling with regard to some matter; a second definition is disposition. Disposition is defined as one’s customary manner of emotional response, or temperament. Temperament is the manner of thinking, behaving or reacting characteristic of a specific individual. All of these definitions tell me that attitude is an inner experience. In that case, I and only I am responsible for my attitude. My attitude is established by what I say and do. My actions are determined, by what I think. When I deny responsibility for my thoughts, I believe the course of events in my life are outside of me. When I live with that belief, that attitude, all I can do is to react. I complained about how “they treat me” “what they did to me” I would sit down and brood about “how nothing good ever happens to poor me”
I can choose to change. I can choose to pick the feelings I would be working with this week. I can change the results in my life. I can begin to accept the responsibility of my actions.
Each of us has free will. I have chosen the results in my life passively or actively. That was an important aspect of my reality for me to accept. It meant that in every situation I encounter I have a choice. I believe that the choice I make is directly related to how responsible I am. In fact, the word “responsible” means being able to make moral or rational decisions on one’s own and therefore being accountable for one’s own behavior. Another definition is the ability to be trusted or to be reliable.
“How exactly do I go about developing a positive mental attitude?” I believe my thoughts determined what I say and do. The first action I took was to stop being a robot that could only do as others instructed. I began to think for myself. I started to believe in myself then. Thinking for me was the first act in creating my world, as I desired it to be. I monitored my thoughts. I actually started listening to my thoughts and questioning whether they were in my best interest or for my highest good. I continue to question them as they pop up on me. This is how learning takes place.
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