Why Attitude Matters

If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment.Atti­tude is such a pro­found dis­po­si­tion. It is our best friend and our worst ene­my.

Some­one wise once said that atti­tude is, “more hon­est and more con­sis­tent than our words.” I love, love this idea–it could­n’t be more true. When you feel hap­py, you’re kinder to oth­ers. You are more patient and very few things can ruin your state of bliss.
But…oh, but when we’re hav­ing a bad day, we’re less pro­duc­tive, we’re impa­tient and unkind to fam­i­ly mem­bers, our pets and others.

Psy­chol­o­gist William James said that our behav­ior fol­lows our atti­tude and that the two can­not be sep­a­rat­ed. (Read this state­ment again, slow­ly)

So here’s a thought: if our behav­ior is direct­ly depen­dent on our mood, and if we are in com­plete con­trol of our thoughts and feel­ings (mood/attitude), and we know this, then why would we ever have a bad day? Per­haps a bad moment, but a bad day? A whole bad day?! Some peo­ple have bad weeks and months. Can you believe it? I can­not wrap my mind around such mad­ness.

Now, I know that life hap­pens and some­times we are right­ful­ly sad, upset or even angry. But those feel­ings only give us more of the same…so one would have to have gone tru­ly mad to con­tin­ue on this destruc­tive path, no?
You may not feel in con­trol of much, but you are CEO of your think­ing, my friend and thoughts are the seeds that breathe life into every­thing else in your life, good and bad.  In essence, you con­trol your life. Wow, just wow. This is mind-blow­ing.

Have a grand Wednes­day, friends. Don’t for­get to be kind to oth­ers, includ­ing and espe­cial­ly your­self.

 

 

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