Positive Attitude

 

 

 

 

 

Positive thinking will let you do everything better than negative thinking will.

 

Zig Ziglar

 

 

 

 

It is a pleasure to be around a person with a positive attitude. It produces a positive feeling. It can be a contagious condition and is worth catching. Most of us know some positive attitude people and enjoy being around them. My friend, Ron, is one of these people. He encourages others, often has a smile, gives motivational input, and is almost always positive. These are great qualities which are worth admiration and emmulation. Also, there are many people in the public eye who we relate to as positive, eventhough we have never met them or don't know them well. Who they are depends on you and your values and perceptions. Whether its someone you know or someone you would just like to know, their postive attitude may be worth catching.

 

Happiness and positive attitude go hand in hand. That is another of those statements which is simple, but still worth reemphasizing. It makes sense. It's hard to be happy without a positive attitude. Another way of saying it is:

 

The more positive your attitude, the happier you will be.

 

This sounds simple or trivial, but it is so true. Attitude is very much self-fulfilling.

 

A thought from John Donne:

 

The mind is a kingdom unto itself; it can make hell from a heaven

or a heaven from a hell.

 

The quote from Donne seems to emphasis that situations are often how you perceive them. He was definitely right. If you have a positive attitude you will generally feel happy. I say generally because we all experience unhappiness through disappointments in everyday life or personal events which cause disappointment or sorrow. This is part of life. However, the majority of the time, the door is open for positive thinking and you are the one who can achieve it!

 

The great thing about positive attitude is that it's totally under your control. This statement is worth repeating every day. You can't control everything that happens to you, but you are definitely in control of your attitude toward everything that happens. Your attitude may be influenced by others, but ultimately, you are the master of your attitude.

 

In the third century B.C., the Greek philosopher Aristotle said:

 

All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion, and desire.

 

You cannot control nature or chance, although you can improve your chances on some things. However, you can control the rest of these causes. We all have habits which we develop and which are often difficult to change. We can change them if we wre determined! We can use our reasoning to do whatever we do, although we sometimes act compulsively or without sound reasoning. We also often act on the advice of others, based on our reasoning and our desires and passions. The key point of all of this is:

 

You are in control of your actions!

 

Other people often have input to what you do. Sometimes a big input. Parents generally provide significant influence to their children. Some people accept the input of parents, loved ones or friends; others reject it. It seems that such advice is almost always well intended. However, you must make your final decisions. Some advice may not be right for you, but its often worth considering. Don't reject advice of others without giving it consideration. Your loved ones almost always have your well being in mind when they give you advice.

 

You may be thinking that you want to be in control, to have a positive attitude, to be happy. But you may also be asking yourself, what can you do in your everyday life to achieve these things? Your attitude about these things is the key! Your attitude is directly related to perception. How you perceive the events and conditions in your life is of primary importance in how you enjoy your life and how happy you are. If you focus on the bad or negaive thingsin you life, you will likely feel unhappy. If you focuson the good things, you will likely be happy and positive.

 

A possible way to assess your personal attitude, think about the various aspects of your life and how you perceive them. Ask yourself a few questions

 

which things do you perceive in a positive way and

which in a negative way?

why do you think they are positive or negative?

are these things controlled by you or your actions,

habits or compulsions?

 

We frequently think that many of the positive things in our lives are the results of our actions. This is often true and really makes the point for having a positive attitude. If you approach things with a positive attitude, good results often happen. How often do you see an interview with someone who has achieved a goal, and hear them say that they maintained a positive attitude and didn't give up? Most successful people achieved their results or success with a positive attitude. The correlation between positive attitude and achievement is no coincidence.

 

Conversely, we often consider negative things in our life as beyond our control, and thus think we cannot do anything about them. There are certainly some things we can't do anything about. However, there may be some things which we think of as negative simply because we perceive them that way. Examine a negative thing in your life and ask yourself why you perceive it as negative. Try to determine if there are positive aspects of this problem. Consider both sides of the situations. Ask yourself what you might do to improve the condition. If you think the condition is controlled by someone else, perhaps you should discuss it with them. Remember, your perceptions and your actions are totally in your control!

 

You have to want to think positive to do so!

 

There are a number of motivational speakers who encourage positive attitude. Zig Ziglar isone who impressed me. One of hisexcellent thoughts is:

 

You cannot tailor make the situations in life, but you can tailor make [your] attitude to fit the situation

 

This thought emphasizes positive attitude and its effect. You can think and act positively on many things in your life, or you can do the opposite. The choice is yours!

 

Positive thinking is the opposite of pessimistic thinking. Helen Keller had a good comment on value of positive over pessimistic. It emphasizes the limiting affect of negative attitude. She said something like:

 

No pessimist ever discovered the secrets of the stars, or sailed to the uncharted land, or opened a new doorway to the human spirit

 

There is no logic in approaching things with anything other than positive attitude. However, almost all of us do some tasks or some activities which we perceive in a negative way. If you have such a task or situation, ask yourself if the task would be easier if you looked at it in a positive sense. Doing the task will almost always be better if done with a positive attitude.

 

Another key aspect of positive attitude is believing you can do what you are attempting. The famous automobile founding father Henry Ford said:

 

Whether you believe you can, or whether you believe you can't, you're absolutely right.

 

That attitude may not alwaysresult in complete achievement of your goal, but it can only help. A similar thought from teachings of Buddha:

 

He is able, who thinks he is able

 

This motivating thought emphasizes believing in yourself to accomplish a goal, to complete a task, to achieve anything of value. This is what positive thinking is all about, when it comes to achieving. If you start any task thinking you cannot do it, you probably will not succeed. Please think about that. You must believe you can do it. Also, when striving to achieve anything, setbacks or disappointments often occur. You must not let them stop you from striving toward your objective. Thinking you can't do something is often self-fulfilling. If you strongly believe you can do something, you have a much, much better chance at success.

 

Consider these thoughts about attitude:

 

your attitude directly affects your happiness

 

you control your attitude

 

you can improve your attitude

 

happiness and achievement often result from positive attitude

 

 

So, what can you do to be more positive? A few ideas which may help:

 

Ask yourself if you are a positive person.

 

If your answer is no, then you should ask yourself why.

 

If your answer is yes, then you can look for ways to further enhance your positive thinking.

 

Write down the positive and negative things in your life.

 

Look for ways to change or minimize the negatives.

 

Ask someone close to you what they think about your attitude.

 

If their answer is different than your perception, then you ask why, perhaps discuss it with them.

 

Encourage others.

 

Give positive feedback to others.

 

Focus on the positive things in your life.

 

 

Remember, you control your attitude!