“Your attitude for life defines your altitude of life”

There was a man who made his living by selling balloons. He had balloons of many different colours, including red, yellow, blue and green. The only difference was some were ordinary while few were filled with helium gas. One day a little boy asked “if you release a red balloon would that fly?” the man looked at the boy and replied gently -
“boy, it is not the colour of the balloon, it is what’s inside that makes it go up.”

Same is the case with our lives: It’s what’s inside us that counts and what’s inside us that makes us go up is our attitude.

One of the most important steps you can take toward achieving your greatest potential in life is to learn to monitor your attitude and its impact on your performance, relationship and everyone around you.

The most important decision we make in our lives is the attitude we choose to express each day when dealing with people and circumstances. This critical choice determines success or failure in every form of life. The key is the realization that we choose. That’s right. You purposefully choose your attitude. Choosing a positive state of mind will lead to virtually unlimited success in your career and your life. A negative attitude will lead to unhappiness, poor relationships, difficulty at work and ultimately, poor health. In fact, the most common causes of death in the world are heart disease and cancer, which are related to stress. Stress is a result of a negative attitude, carried out via perceptions, choices and behaviours.

So, how do we build a right attitude? There are three factors that determines our attitude formation.

1.  Education:

First of all don’t confuse yourself between education and learning. Education includes both formal and informal knowledge. We are drowning in information but starving for knowledge and wisdom. Learning is lot like eating. It is not how much you eat that matters, what matters is how much you digest.

2.  Environment :

Once upon a time, at a large mountainside there was an eagle nest with 4 large eagle eggs inside. One day, an earthquake rocked the mountain causing one of the eggs to roll down to a chicken farm, located in the valley below. The chickens knew that they must protect the eagle egg. Eventually, the eagle egg hatched and a beautiful eagle was born. Being chickens, the chickens raised the eagle to be a chicken. The eagle loved his home and family but it seemed his spirit cried out for more. One day, the eagle looked to the skies above and noticed a group of mighty eagles soaring. “Oh,” the eagle cried, “I wish I could soar like those birds.”

The chickens roared with laughter, “You cannot soar like those. You are a chicken and chickens do not soar.” The eagle continued staring at his real family up above, dreaming that he could be like them. Each time the eagle talked about his dreams, he was told it couldn't be done. That was what the eagle learned to believe. After time, the eagle stopped dreaming and continued to live his life as a chicken.

Finally, after a long life as a chicken, the eagle passed away.

Environment consist everything you see around everything you observe in you daily life. If your environment is conducive of positive influence, your attitude is ought to be positive.

One of the tragic parts of negative attitudes is that misery loves company. Negative people will search out others and attempt to bring them down to their level. This is how negative attitudes spread. Their negative influence feels powerful and they use it as a self-esteem boost. People do this in attempt to feel better about themselves, but the end result is short-lived and unproductive. In sales, it is hard enough dealing with rejection from your prospects and customers. Find positive people and let their attitudes stick to you.

So choose your eagles wisely and maintain distance with the chickens.

3.  Experience :

Experience is an important ingredient for success as ‘success comes from good experiences and good experiences comes from bad experiences.’

Similarly experience hold an important place in forming your attitude. Our attitude and behaviour changes from person to person depending upon the experience we had with the person. Same is the case with events we face in our life. So even if you had a bad experience with something try to look for the golden side of it.

Everything that happens to you in your life is a learning experience. This is positive. We may have hoped for a different outcome, but face the facts in a positive light and move on. Let yourself become stronger from the experience, rather than weaker, full of doubt and stressed. Experience is just another word for mistake. Learn from these experiences by choosing a positive attitude that prepares you for the next challenge in life, which is right around the corner.

Consequences of a negative Attitude.

Sustained negative attitude will kill you. By far, the worst side effect of bad attitude is stress and the top fatal diseases in the world are caused by stress. Stress turns quickly into anxiety and depression. Now that you know you have power to choose, why to choose negative attitude? People with negative attitudes struggle and have difficulties in their life. Life is an obstacle course and we become our biggest obstacle by having a negative attitude.

Rewards of a positive attitude.

People like to be around positive people. Having a positive attitude will improve your relationship with people, makes you happier and leads to success. The rewards of a positive attitude are enormous, if you are willing to keep your spirits up over long term.

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude towards it, for that determines our success or failure.

-        Norman Vincent peale