A Good Attitude Will Get You Everywhere

Our Attitude is our state of mind; the way we respond to ourselves, other people, an event, an object, a place etc.

It is our way of looking at things, our point of view, our belief, our disposition. Our Attitude has been established through our training, our past experiences, our gained knowledge, our maturity and our current level of awareness. Whatever our Attitude might be, it influences our thoughts and subsequently our actions.

Why is Attitude Everything? Because our Attitude has a major impact on every aspect of our life. 

There are many things over which we have no control – the weather, other people’s behaviour and their actions. We can’t change what has gone on in the past. There are going to be things that will happen in life that are inevitable. Nobody gets through this life unscathed.

What is important here, is not what happens to us in life, but how we respond to what happens, how we deal with an event, a situation or a person – and indeed, how we have been trained to handle it.

People often don’t realise we have all been raised differently, therefore we will see things differently and handle things in a different way. 

Most of us have been raised with a set of ‘rights and wrongs’ and ‘goods and bads’. Hence we don’t all agree when looking at the same situation.

There are very few ‘rights and wrongs’ in life, very few ‘goods and bads’, but there are better ways of doing things, more effective ways of handling situations. Certainly there are rules and laws of the land by which we live. Without those in place, there would be anarchy. 

We can all be looking at the same situation but because we have had different upbringings, a different set of ‘rights and wrongs’ or ‘goods and bad’, we see things from our own coloured perspective. Therefore our Attitude to a certain situation can be completely different to everyone else’s.

Remember, we see things not as they are, but as we are. Hence our Attitude to a particular situation will be governed by all of those things that have happened in our life to bring us to this perspective, this belief, this point of view, and we will handle that situation accordingly.

Here’s the most important thing – we have the ability to change our Attitude at any time. Every day we have the choice to create the Attitude we want for that day. The one thing we can change is the only thing we have control over and that is our Attitude.

If we are faced with a situation we are not happy with, perhaps a mistake has been made, or something unfortunate has happened unintentionally, we do what we can to change it or fix it or amend it – whatever we can do that is positive. If there is no way that it can be repaired; if there is nothing else that can be done, let it go; move on. Know that you have done everything positive in your power that can be done and then accept ‘what is’.

It sounds over-simplistic but this applies to everything in life, it really does. This is where our change in Attitude comes in. We have the choice to look at things differently, from a different perspective; we have the choice to change our Attitude.

If we don’t change our Attitude, if we hold on to our position of “I am right, therefore you are wrong”, we can wind up frustrated, angry and full of resentment. Holding on to those negative feelings triggers the Fight/Flight syndrome which can result in continued stress that may manifest in physical illness. (See notes on Overcoming Anger and Releasing Stress)

In the words of Maya Angelou, the American poet and civil rights activist: “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your Attitude.”