How To Build A Positive Attitude

        

                       DURING childhood, we form attitudes that last a lifetime. Undoubtedly, it would be easier to acquire a positive attitude during our formative years. If the combination of your inborn temperament and your early childhood experiences have, produced a positive attitude, you are indeed very fortunate. But, if you have acquired a negative attitude, whether by design or by default—are you stuck with it? Of course not. Can you change? Yes. Is it easy? Absolutely not! Is it worth it? You bet!

How do you build and maintain a positive attitude?

• Become aware of the principles that build a positive attitude.

• Desire to be positive.

• Cultivate the discipline and dedication to practice those principles.

As adults, regardless of our environment, education and experience, who is responsible for our attitude? We are. We have to accept responsibility for our behavior and actions. Some people blame everyone and every-thing but themselves: It is up to us to choose our attitude every morning.

People with negative attitudes often blame the whole world—their parents, teachers, spouse, bosses, the stars, fate, luck, the economy and the government—for their failures.

You have to get away from the past. Dust yourself off and get back into the mainstream. Put your dreams together and move forward. Thinking of the positive things that are true, honest and good, will put you in a positive state of mind.

8 STEPS TO ATTITUDE CHANGE:

If you want to build and maintain a positive attitude, you need to consciously practice the following steps:

Step 1: Change Focus, Look for the Positive

You need to become a seeker of good. You need to focus on the positive in your life. Start looking for what is right in a person or situation instead of looking for what is wrong. Because of our conditioning, most of us are so attuned to finding fault and looking for what is wrong that we often forget to see the positive picture.

What is your focus? Search for the gold. If you are looking for what is wrong with people or with things, you will find many faults. What are we looking for? Gold or dirt? Even in paradise, fault finders will find faults. Most people find what they are looking for.

SOME PEOPLE WILL ALWAYS LOOK FOR THE NEGATIVE

Negative People will Always Criticize Some people criticize no matter what. It does not matter how well something is done, they will always find fault with it. They have made a career out of criticizing. They are "career critics". They criticize as if they will win a prize at a contest. They will find fault with every person and every situation. You will find people like this in every family and office. They go around finding fault and telling everybody how bad things are and blaming the whole world for their problems. These people are energy suckers. They will go to the cafeteria and drown themselves in 20 cups of tea and coffee and smoke to their hearts' content with one excuse—they are trying to relax. All that they are doing is causing more tension for themselves and for others around them. They spread negative messages like a plague and create an environment conducive to negative results.

Robert Fulton invented the steamboat. He displayed his new invention on the banks of the Hudson River. Among the crowd who had gathered around to observe the steam boat were some pessimists and skeptics. They commented that it would never start. But lo and behold, it did. As it made its way down the river, the pessimists who said it would never start, saw it start, immediately shouted now it would never stop. What an attitude!

Some people always look at the negative side. Who is pessimist? Pessimists:

• are unhappy when they have no troubles to speak of

• feel bad when they feel good, for fear they will feel worse when they feel better

• spend most of their life at complaint counters

• always turn out the lights to see how dark it is

• are always looking for cracks in the mirror of life

• stop sleeping in bed when they hear that more people die in bed than anywhere else

• cannot enjoy their health because they think they may be sick tomorrow

• not only expect the worst but make the worst of whatever happens

• don't see the doughnut, only the hole • believe that the sun shines only to cast shadows

 • forget their blessings and count their troubles • know that hard work never hurts anyone but believe "why take a chance?"

Caution: Looking for the positive does not necessarily mean overlooking faults.

Be an Optimist:

How can one be an optimist? It is well described by the following:

"Be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind. Talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person you meet. Make all your friends feel that you appreciate their good qualities and strengths. Look at the sunny side of everything. Think only of the best, work only for the best, and expect only the best. Be as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own. Forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future. Give everyone a smile. Spend so much time improving yourself that you have no time left to criticize others. Be too big for worry and too noble for anger."