Attitude Is Everything

The process of human change begins within us. We all have tremendous
potential. We all desire good results from our efforts. Most of us are willing to
work hard and to pay the price that success and happiness demand.
Each of us has the ability to put our unique human potential into action and to
acquire a desired result. But the one thing that determines the level of our
potential, that produces the intensity of our activity, and that predicts the quality
of the result we receive is our attitude.
Attitude determines how much of the future we are allowed to see. It decides the
size of our dreams and influences our determination when we are faced with new
challenges. No other person on earth has dominion over our attitude. People can
affect our attitude by teaching us poor thinking habits or unintentionally
misinforming us or providing us with negative sources of influence, but no one
can control our attitude unless we voluntarily surrender that control.
No one else "makes us angry." We make ourselves angry when we surrender
control of our attitude. What someone else may have done is irrelevant. We
choose, not they. They merely put our attitude to a test. If we select a volatile
attitude by becoming hostile, angry, jealous or suspicious, then we have failed
the test. If we condemn ourselves by believing that we are unworthy, then again,
we have failed the test.
If we care at all about ourselves, then we must accept full responsibility for our
own feelings. We must learn to guard against those feelings that have the
capacity to lead our attitude down the wrong path and to strengthen those
feelings that can lead us confidently into a better future.
If we want to receive the rewards the future holds in trust for us, then we must
exercise the most important choice given to us as members of the human race by
maintaining total dominion over our attitude. Our attitude is an asset, a treasure
of great value, which must be protected accordingly. Beware of the vandals and
thieves among us who would injure our positive attitude or seek to steal it away.
Having the right attitude is one of the basics that success requires. The
combination of a sound personal philosophy and a positive attitude about
ourselves and the world around us gives us an inner strength and a firm resolve
that influences all the other areas of our existence.