By: D. A. Slinkard
One of the hardest things anyone can control is their attitude. It takes work to maintain a positive attitude, and it is easy to have a lousy one. I firmly believe that if a person wants to achieve more in life, it must first start with the attitude they take. Our attitudes will determine our perception of what is going on around us. In fact, I believe too many people are going about life with the wrong attitude, and this is the primary culprit as to why they are not achieving everything they would like.
This may seem very elementary to many folks, but the most challenging attribute I see most people deal with is having the wrong kind of attitude. I believe we need to teach our children at an early age to control their attitude, and this will continue throughout their life. However, we live in a society that sees parents catering to their children’s negative attitudes, and we end up creating our own worst nightmares. I believe we all learn to control our attitudes; it just depends on whether you learn to control the positive side or the negative side.
The choice truly is ours to make, yet too often, people are not willing to make the conscious effort to work on their attitude. Let’s face it, it is much easier to be grumpy and have a bad attitude than it is to be positive and have a smile on our face. Life is so much better when we have the right attitude; so why is it so many people suffer from being negative? It simply takes work, and we want everything to be easy.
Life is not always easy, and the people who go around being negative just make it that much harder on themselves and on other people. Our attitudes begin and end with the way we think and the words we use. If we think negative, we will get negative results, and the same can be said if we think positive. Thinking negative or thinking positive comes down to the way we eternalize our thoughts. If we look at the cup as half empty, it will be, but if we look at the cup as being half full, it eventually will be that way.
Our thinking does not become positive overnight, but it sure can become negative overnight, and we must work doubly as hard to prevent this from happening. You might be asking, “How does a person do this?” I suggest you start out by making a list of the people who matter most in your life, and write their names down. Next, focus on the specific aspects of life that bring you fulfillment and list those. For me, God is an extremely huge portion of my life, and my belief in Jesus Christ as my Saviour. I do not write this to be pious, but as a reminder for Christians that we have something to be positive about when Christ is THE Redeemer and He should truly be at the top of every Christian’s list…but sadly He is not.
I firmly believe that when we focus in on what we do have and not on what we do not have, we will begin to gain a better appreciation for what we have. Right now, there is someone in this world that would swap places with you in a heartbeat. We must remember that even though we think we have it bad, there is someone who would gladly change places with us and would not gripe about it. When you think about things like this, it really starts to change your perspective.
When you look at the list you have created, this should serve as your motivation for why you should be positive. Life is too short to be negative; find the positive and change your perspective. It starts with taking the first step, which this is changing the way you think. Make a conscious effort to see your life as the cup being half full and continuously make this decision.
Eventually, over time, you will see your life like this and will notice the attitude pendulum begin to swing in your favor. You will begin to see the control you have over your attitude, and when something bad happens, you can place a positive perspective versus spiraling into having a negative attitude.
We control our attitudes and the perspectives we have each day, and either way we go, whether positive or negative, is up to us to decide.
By: D. A. Slinkard
D.A. Slinkard would love your feedback. You can contact him at da.slinkard@gmail.com
November 14, 2024
