Today's Topic - Attitude "You are the cause of your suffering, but only all of it.
" - PAUL SCHEELE Today's topic, attitude, continues where yesterdays discussion of self esteem left off.
Your attitude regarding life colors your reality.
Think of it this way: your attitude is a pair of colored eye glasses through which you see the world.
Are the glasses rose-colored? Are they blue? Yellow? Red? Green? The glasses analogy is just a way to help you to see how important your attitude is.
If you were wearing blue glasses, everything you look at would have a blue tint to it, and you would feel blue.
Similarly, when we have a rotten attitude, everything in the world is tinted with "rotten.
" People cut you off in traffic, people almost run you down with their cars when you are walking across the street to the grocery store.
Your boss seems angry all the time.
Co-workers do things to prove you can't trust them.
Your friends or significant other seem distant all of the sudden, they don't want to talk or hang out.
The ATM is out of order.
You bounce a check.
You get into a fender bender.
Etc.
And you feel rotten.
There are many ways in which a rotten attitude distorts your view of reality.
These incidents could happen if you have a positive attitude just as easily, but the difference is: You don't notice them! They take place, but you flow with it and move on.
You don't waste a minute thinking about how that lady almost hit you with her car while you were walking into the grocery store.
So, you now know that you need to maintain a positive attitude right? Ok, so who is responsible for it? You of course! You should now know that you create your anxiety and panic through the thoughts that you entertain.
It is also you that creates your attitude, your outlook on life.
Seems obvious right? Here's where it gets difficult.
Let's say someone looks at you, points their finger at you and says something negative about you.
They made a judgment about you and they are bent on telling you and ruining your day, week, month, year, or life.
How do you maintain a positive attitude about that? Understand that the only one who can make you sad, angry, upset, or anxious is you.
In fact, you are the only one who can feel any emotion (that you absolutely, positively know of) and it is you who initiates that feeling and stews or basks in it.
Let me say that again.
You create emotions that you then experience.
You do.
Just you.
If another is bent on ruining your day, you don't have to let it.
You don't have to give them that power.
You can spend 30 seconds and think about what they are saying and see things from their viewpoint and then realize that there are billions of different ways to look at something.
From your viewpoint, you are doing the best you can and you are happy! When I think of the importance of attitude, I think of an airplane in flight.
Did you know airplanes have attitudes? Yes, the way the airplane is flying is known as its attitude.
An airplane can be flying straight and level or it can be out of control.
These are both examples of a airplane's "attitude.
" If you find the airplane in a bad attitude, you use the "controls" of the airplane to apply "correction" to the "control surfaces" which brings the plane back into a proper attitude (straight and level flight).
The "control surfaces" are the parts of the airplane that interact with the air to bring the airplane into a proper attitude.
Similarly, your thoughts are the control surfaces that bring your brain back into a proper attitude.
You may be wondering about the "controls" in the airplane analogy.
Well, the controls are positive self-talk.
And it just so happens that's the subject of the next lesson.
Just remember, if you are flying straight and level now, the odds are good that you will be flying straight and level 1 minute from now.
The best way to use your brain is to keep it straight and level! To your health and success! You are on track!