ATTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ALTITUDE

Another key to lifelong success is Attitude. Your attitude affectseverything in

your life. How is your attitude? Are you one of those peoplewho is always blaming

outside forces for your problems? Do you walk around in a negative state of mind most

of the time? I think not. Peoplelike that would never have opened this subject inthe first

place. However  positive you may be most of the time, there will be days when you just

feelnegative. While this may be fine for a brief period, prolonging anegative attitude has

disastrous consequences. A negative attitude robsyour initiative and destroys

your discipline.Your attitude will determine your altitude and a man who struggles

withhis attitude will struggle with many other essential and important factorsand

elements that will lead him to his altitude in life.The ³so what´ or ³who cares´ attitude

stops you from taking the actionsthat will help you build the kind of life you want to have

for yourself andyour family.

Here how a negative attitude robs us of our potential for good. At one of the low

points in my own life, I had developed a ³who cares, what theuse´ attitude. I felt that I

was stuck where I was because of circumstancesoutside my control and blamed the world

for my conditions. I figured Iwas at the bottom, so why even care? The problem is, as I

learned througha lot of emotional pain, that there are always lower bottoms to which

wecan sink. As my attitude continued to be negative and blaming, mysituation

worsened.Only when I was willing to take responsibility for my life, stop blamingand

look for what little good remained, was I able to begin to turn thissituation around. A

negative attitude keeps us stuck by robbing us of theself-discipline we need to improve

our conditions. If you take a ³what¶sthe use´ approach to your circumstances, they will

only get worse.It¶s imperative that you turn a negative attitude around and learn

to become a positive person.

The fastest and easiest way I know to change from a negative to a positiveattitude

is to develop an attitude of gratitude. You may even want to keep agratitude journal, a

place where you can build a list of the things you aregrateful for in your life. It¶s

impossible to have gratitude and be in self- pity at the same time, and most negative

attitudes are rooted in self-pitying,³poor me´ self-talk. You can quickly change a negative

attitude to a positive one by becoming grateful.The simplest way I know to do this is to

ask a question like, ³What am Igrateful for today?´ Then, write down whatever comes to

mind. It may beall of the blessings you have like good health, a clear mind, a

lovingfamily, satisfying work, a comfortable home, friends, and pets and so on.Make a

daily habit of counting your blessings and list what you aregrateful for in your life. Doing

this first thing in the morning will help youfeel better immediately and begin your day on

a positive note.On days when you are feeling down, take out your ³gratitude journal´

andreread it. Doing this simple exercise will make you feel better almostimmediately.

Even though this may seem cliché but we can never get enough of the phrase

³never give up´. It motivates us to reach for the stars and no matter 

how hard it is, we continue the job until it is perfected. Thomas A. Edisonsaid ³I have not

failed. I¶ve just found 10,000 ways that don¶t work.´Why do people quit so easily after

making a mistake? In my perception, amistake is not something terrible or negative but a

life lesson learnt.Sometimes, we can never have or get what we always wanted. So what?

Let it go and get on with life! If it is meant to be, then it is. Don¶t getdemotivated just

because something didn¶t go the way you intended it to be.Most importantly, never beat

yourself up for it. If we blame ourselves, thematter only gets worse. We¶ll be wallowing

in sadness and we won¶t beable to think straight. This incident might eventually lead to

depression.Take a break and smell the flowers. Don¶t go too hard on yourself. After all,

we are only human.Think of God¶s wonderful creations and all the beautiful things in

life. Lifeis magnificent if we look at it from a brighter perspective. It¶s not meant to be

about work, stress or depression. These things happen only if we letthem happen. It¶s not

anyone else¶s fault because you let it happen.Happiness starts within.

Perseverance is commitment, hard work, patience, endurance. With

nodetermination and perseverance, we can kiss success goodbye.Perseverance is being

able to bear difficulties calmly and withoutcomplaint. We have to try and try again. Who

said life is a bed of rosesanyway? There definitely got to be ups and downs. We should

rejoice and be grateful when we are at the ups and pick ourselves up when we

areexperiencing the downs.All things will come round to him who will but wait. You

may bedisappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. When

something starts to bother you, wait as long as you can before you

expressfrustration. Focus on someone or something that ordinarily makes you loseyour

patience and try to understand it. Whatever happens in life, face andaccept it.Write your

problems down if it makes you feel better. When you look  back at your entries, you¶ll

either realise that your previous problemseemed so petty now or you had finally

overcame that problem you hadand you¶re ready to tackle a new one. Besides that,

relaxing or motivatingmusic will definitely perk you up.Beethoven persevered despite

being deaf and managed to compose many beautiful pieces like Fur Elise. Thomas Edison

(inventor) had a learning problem, Stevie Wonder (musician) is blind, Terry Fox (runner)

is anamputee with cancer, Helen Keller (author) was deaf and blind, Franklin

D.Roosevelt (president) was paralyzed from polio and Stephen Hawking(physicist) has

Lou Gehrig¶s disease. Great people always persevere nomatter what.

The right attitude

Many inventors were first frustrated when using the wrong resources for their inventions

but when they imbibed the right information with the rightattitude, their inventions

became known and they became inventors.Money, wealth, riches, good quality of life,

flashy cars or big houses etc.whatever is it that drives you to acquisition of anything is

not the greatestachievement in life but the right attitude to everything and everyone in

life.As we embark on this new journey this week, let us adopt the right attitudeto our

friends,neighbours, colleagues, workers, employers, businesses andto everyone we come

across, every relationship or friendship we findourselves in and more importantly our

relationship to our maker, our creator, the one who moulded us out of nothing, HE has

made ussomebody out of nothing, record how far your positive or negative attitudetakes

you this week and determine to change the world around you.

how hard it is, we continue the job until it is perfected. Thomas A. Edisonsaid ³I have not

failed. I¶ve just found 10,000 ways that don¶t work.´Why do people quit so easily after

making a mistake? In my perception, amistake is not something terrible or negative but a

life lesson learnt.Sometimes, we can never have or get what we always wanted. So what?

Let it go and get on with life! If it is meant to be, then it is. Don¶t getdemotivated just

because something didn¶t go the way you intended it to be.Most importantly, never beat

yourself up for it. If we blame ourselves, thematter only gets worse. We¶ll be wallowing

in sadness and we won¶t beable to think straight. This incident might eventually lead to

depression.Take a break and smell the flowers. Don¶t go too hard on yourself. After all,

we are only human.Think of God¶s wonderful creations and all the beautiful things in

life. Lifeis magnificent if we look at it from a brighter perspective. It¶s not meant to be

about work, stress or depression. These things happen only if we letthem happen. It¶s not

anyone else¶s fault because you let it happen.Happiness starts within.

Perseverance is commitment,hard work, patience, endurance. With

nodetermination and perseverance, we can kiss success goodbye.Perseverance is being

able to bear difficulties calmly and withoutcomplaint. We have to try and try again. Who

said life is a bed of rosesanyway? There definitely got to be ups and downs. We should

rejoice and be grateful when we are at the ups and pick ourselves up when we

areexperiencing the downs.All things will come round to him who will but wait. You

may bedisappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try. When

something starts to bother you, wait as long as you can before you expressfrustration.

Focus on someone or something that ordinarily makes you loseyour patience and try to

understand it. Whatever happens in life, face andaccept it.Write your problems down if it

makes you feel better. When you look  back at your entries, you¶ll either realise that your

previous problemseemed so petty now or you had finally overcame that problem you

hadand you¶re ready to tackle a new one. Besides that, relaxing or motivatingmusic will

definitely perk you up.Beethoven persevered despite being deaf and managed to compose

many beautiful pieces like Fur Elise. Thomas Edison (inventor) had a learning problem,

Stevie Wonder (musician) is blind, Terry Fox (runner) is anamputee with cancer, Helen

Keller (author) was deaf and blind, Franklin D.Roosevelt (president) was paralyzed from

polio and Stephen Hawking(physicist) has Lou Gehrig¶s disease. Great people always

persevere nomatter what.

The right attitude

Many inventors were first frustrated when using the wrong resources for their inventions

but when they imbibed the right information with the rightattitude, their inventions

became known and they became inventors.Money, wealth, riches, good quality of life,

flashy cars or big houses etc.whatever is it that drives you to acquisition of anything is

not the greatestachievement in life but the right attitude to everything and everyone in

life.As we embark on this new journey this week, let us adopt the right attitudeto our

friends, neighbours, colleagues, workers, employers, businesses andto everyone we come

across, every relationship or friendship we findourselves in and more importantly our

relationship to our maker, our creator, the one who moulded us out of nothing, HE has

made ussomebody out of nothing, record how far your positive or negative attitudetakes

you this week and determine to change the world around you.