The Life Charging Power of a Positive Attitude

I’ve been reading a lot about attitude lately.  I’ve been multi-tasking, actually – researching for a couple of articles while rounding up more quotes about attitude for the Motivational Quotes section.  A few of my favorite quotes, so far, have been the ones below:

“A butterfly is a caterpillar with a positive attitude.” – Randy Glasbergen, Cartoonist 

“Attitude is the reflection of a person and our world mirrors our attitude.” – Earl Nightingale

Each of these quotes, in its own way, points out one huge truth:  Attitude makes all the difference in the world!  The right attitude can take a person with mediocre skills and make them a millionaire.  The wrong attitude can take a person with superhuman skills and make them a pauper.

Think for a minute.  Think about some people you’ve known in your life who, in your estimation, had remarkable potential.  They were smart, talented, had a great personality - they had so much going on for them that you wondered what kept them from making it big.  Now think about some of the people you’ve known in your life who did, in fact, make it big.  The thing is, you have NO IDEA how they got there!  Maybe you even marvel that they find their way back to their own bed at night.  They don’t strike you as particularly intelligent, yet there are their degrees on the wall.  Personality?  You’ve never seen signs of one, yet they’re one of the most successful people you know.  In spite of yourself, you find yourself wondering how’d they make it here?

ATTITUDE.  Possibly the simple answer to both inner questions. If you could get inside of the first person’s mind and tinker with their attitude, you’d change their life for the better.  By the same token, if you tinkered with the second one’s attitude, they might wander around all night looking for that bed.

Arnold Palmer once talked about his father and his role in his own success.  He said that his dad told him, “Remember, whatever game you play, 90 percent of success is from the shoulders up.” You have to think you’re a winner before you’ll be a winner. Only I would be daft enough to mention my own name in a paragraph with Arnold Palmer’s, but I also had parents who taught me to believe in myself. It didn’t hurt matters that I was an only child and my mom and dad pretty much thought I could do anything, and do it better than the rest.   I’m not a cocky person by nature, but if I were to be honest, I’d have to admit that whatever sport (softball, tennis) or activity (gymnastics, tap, ballet) I participated in when growing up, I was consistently one of the very best.  It wasn’t talent or brain power, it was simply an inner voice that said, “You can do this.”

I was one of the lucky ones, I had parents, grandparents, uncles, and an aunt who I adore – all around me waiting for me to wax brilliant.  I felt their belief in me even when they were miles away. I still do even though some of them are now in Heaven. They helped me to develop a very positive attitude. They believed in me, so I believed in me.

I marvel at the people in the world who develop their own positive attitude.  The ones who had to tell themselves, “You can do this!” or “You’re as good as anyone!”  If you’re one of these people, my hat’s off to you.

If you don’t have a positive attitude today, that doesn’t mean you can’t have one tomorrow.  Just start working on it!  When your inner doubts rise to the surface, use them as motivators.  Take on the attitude of “I’ll show you.”  Then keep on keeping on until you do just that.  Harvard psychologist William James said, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind.”

Attitude is a choice.  You either choose to believe in yourself or you choose not to.  I think that a lot of people find a positive attitude to be too risky.  After all, they reason, if you don’t believe in yourself – you’ll never set yourself up for a fall.  There’s truth in that – but there’s also truth in the fact that if you never get out of bed, you’ll never run into anything.  But who wants to stay in bed all their life?!

Start today.  Keep telling yourself that you can do anything you want to do.  Remind yourself of your past successes – even seemingly small things that you did and did well. 

Work on your attitude, then watch your attitude work in your life! 

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