Improve Your Attitude To Improve Your Life.

The late, great Earl Nightingale called Attitude "the magic word" and said, "Attitude is the very foundation for success". The dictionary defines the word attitude as: ‘Way of thinking; position of the body'. It has also been said that: "Our attitude in life almost always determines our altitude" and also "Attitude is the way you communicate your mood to others". A good attitude is essential to self-improvement.

So where do our attitudes come from? Our attitudes come from our thoughts and feelings. The good news is we can choose our attitude. The events in our life are neutral so we can choose how we respond to them and thus choose our attitude. As William Shakespeare said, "Nothing is either good or bad but thinking makes it so". Jack Canfield uses this equation to explain it: E+R=O, the Event plus our Response to it equals the Outcome we obtain.

"You can't control many of the things or events in your life, but you can control the attitude you take towards the things that happen in your life". Tim Connor.

Here is a story about attitudes: Two boys were used to conduct an experiment. The first boy was placed in a room full of all kinds of toys and told that he could play with as many as he liked but could not take any of them home. The second boy was placed in a room containing a huge pile of horse manure. Half an hour later the scientists went back to find out what the two boys were up to. When they opened the door of the first boy's room they found him busily engaged in breaking all the toys. When asked why he was doing it he replied: "If I can't have them then nobody will!" They then opened the door of the second boy's room. He was furiously digging away at the pile of manure with a shovel. When asked why he replied: "With all this horse manure in here there must be a pony under here somewhere!" Who had the better attitude? That story is simply a metaphor but I'm sure you see what I'm getting at.

So what is your attitude like and where is it taking you? Is your attitude helping you or hindering you? Your attitude can make you or break you. Everything we do in life is either helping us or hurting us. It is either helping us towards the better life we want for our self or keeping us from getting it. If something you consider bad happens you can choose to have a positive attitude to it or a negative one. Consider this: Is a negative attitude going to make us feel better about it or worse? A negative attitude will not aid your self-improvement.

To get back to Jack Canfield, if you choose to respond to the event with a better attitude you will get a better outcome. All this sounds simple, and it is, but that doesn't mean it will be easy. I know; I have been to the very depths of despair in my life. Like anything else in life it takes practise. As somebody else famous once said: "A positive frame of mind (attitude) won't solve your problems but it will put you in a better frame of mind to face them". Henry Ford put it this way, "Don't find fault, find a remedy". So keep practising to adopt a better attitude to the events in your life and always remember the following:

"You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by trying. Success is achieved and maintained by those who keep trying with a positive mental attitude".

Napoleon Hill and W. Clement Stone.