Everything starts with attitude.
Everything!
I don’t drink the “positive thinking” cool-aid; there’s no achievement without action. However, only positive attitude produces positive action.
I’ve heard some teachers say that all you need to create success is the right mental attitude. I’ve heard a few teachers say that once you develop this positive outlook or complete focus on your goal that all you need to do is relax and let it happen.
I don’t agree.
Development of a positive mental attitude is essential. It is the first step in creating success. A relaxed, positive and confident attitude is powerful. However, without action results are a product of chance. Positive directed action founded on positive mental attitude is how you control the odds.
I’m also a believer in the “Law of Attraction”. Generally we tend to get back what we put out. However, there are loopholes in any law. One loophole is that good things do sometimes happen to bad people. The biggest loophole in the Law of Attraction is that sometimes you’re subject to conditions and circumstances beyond your control.
I’ve heard proponents of the Law of Attraction say that even if you have a car accident, you caused this to happen through your thoughts and attitude. Well, sometimes…maybe.
How do you explain all the good and decent people with positive attitudes that were victims of mass murder, holocaust and war? Do the victims of hurricanes, tornados and floods bring on their fate by having bad attitudes? You may disagree, but to me this is a very simplistic and immature view of the universe.
The fact is that we’re a small part of a very big machine. Sometimes we get caught in the works. The fact is that much of the time, we’ve simply got to play the cards we’re dealt.
Do you want to play Poker or Old Maid?
I’ll take Poker. In Poker I can win, even with a bad hand.
With a positive attitude you control the odds. With a positive attitude you take lemons and make lemonade. With a positive attitude you go for it on fourth down, you pick yourself up, you weather the storm and you, well…add insert your favorite cliché here: _____________________________.
Negativity simply never produces positive results. Of course, it’s easy to buy into negativity. When you set a goal there’s only one desirable outcome: the achievement of that goal. There may be a hundred unfavorable outcomes. There may be a thousand obstacles that reduce your chance of success.
However, even if the odds are 1,000 to 1, you’ve still got one chance to succeed. With a positive attitude you start to change the odds. You do this by taking action to reduce the possible negative outcomes. Change 10 variables from negative to positive and now your odds are 100 to 1. Change 10 of those and you’ve got a 10 to 1 chance of success.
With a positive attitude you see opportunity in every disaster. A person with a negative attitude sees disaster in every opportunity. Once you embrace a negative attitude, there’s simply no reason to face the odds.
You can always control your attitude. You can always control your response to any set of conditions and circumstances. You can win with any hand, as long as you’ve got the power of a positive mental attitude.
