The Attitude Of Success

In his book The Winning Attitude, John C. Maxwell, the noted best selling author and speaker tells us that attitude is:

• The “advance man” of our true selves
• Has inward roots but outward fruits
• Is our best friend or worst enemy
• Is more honest and more consistent than our words
• Is an outward look based on past experiences
• Is a think which draws people to us or repels them
• Is never content until it is expressed
• Is the librarian of our past
• Is the speaker of our present
• Is the prophet of our future

A positive attitude, i.e. your willingness to think positively, affects many people - from your immediate family to the stranger you smile at in passing at the grocery store. The optimist sees opportunity in difficulties, while a pessimist sees difficulty in opportunities.

You decide what you focus upon and how you will react, so think carefully before choosing what to focus upon, because if you choose poorly, you condemn yourself to never reaching your goals or the success you say you want. That you can count on!

So how can you begin to think positively if you’re a natural pessimist?  Well, for a start, there’s no such thing as a natural pessimists, just people who have learned over time to think that the worst that can happen will happen in any situation. But even they, when they really think about it, will be able to remember something going well for them at some point in their life. And developing a positive attitude is all about remembering more of your good experiences than the bad.

It is a fact of life that there are problems and no matter what you will always be faced with your fair share and whilst nobody can avoid problems as such, anybody can determine how they decide to respond to those problems. If you start by seeing a problem as a challenge and decide that your task is to find an appropriate solution to it as quickly as possible, then you will soon gain a reputation as a problem solver. And as a problem solver, you realize that there will normally be a solution and all you have to do is find it, and before you know it you have become an optimist.

Cynicism is another killer when it comes to attitude. It causes people to treat everything with suspicion and always looks for an ulterior motive behind an action. It never permits you to think that somebody could just be being kind or generous.

However, cynicism comes from having unrealistic expectations.  Many people want great and wonderful things to happen to them with little-or-no work on their part.  They expect everything to fall straight into their laps and when it doesn’t work like that, they become bitter and cynical towards people who have worked hard to achieve their success.

You need to harness the power of your thoughts and words when plotting your course for success. Use positive affirmations daily: remind yourself that stumbling blocks are only temporary until you’ve found the solution and that you will overcome it; confirm in your own mind that you are courageous and commit to keeping on going even when others have given up because only you can see the vision for your life and it is only up to you whether you will achieve your goals or not.

When you learn that your success is totally up to you and you discipline yourself to think differently from the masses, you will find optimism and positive thinkers start to pursue you because everyone wants more of what you will have.

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