Act or Acted Upon?

 Our mindset has more to do with our success than most people realize or are willing to acknowledge. How you think and your point of view on a particular situation dramatically changes the effect it has on your life. So far, what I am saying is nothing new. You know that you can choose to look at the same event differently and have that dramatically effect your life... Example: A Car Accident. You can choose to think "just my luck I totaled my car and broke my arm!" or you can choose to think, "I am grateful to have only totaled my car and broken an arm."

Obvious example right?

Now the real question: What is the difference between these two people? The difference is that one is on the path to failure and one on the path of success. You can identify people in your life who adopt one of the two attitudes. They either act or choose to be acted upon. Either they are in control of their life or life controls them. The difference is merely perspective. You can be grateful for what you have and strive for more or long lustfully for that which you lack. Either way the goal is to get more of something...but while the person filled with gratitude is working towards becoming Independently wealthy, the person focused on the lack is inadvertently creating more of it.

So why is this difference so dramatic simply because of whether the glass is seen as half-empty or half-full? Well, consider this. Where do we get all of our opportunities in life? What is the source of the majority of our learning and guidance? What is the greatest influence on our success? Answer: People. The people that surround you are the greatest source of knowledge, the greatest source of inspiration, mentorship and opportunity that any of us has. The up and downside of that is that we tend to attract people who think like we do.

The attitude of your friends and other associates is a good indicator of what your attitude is like. The problem is the principal that we teach our kids is true for us as well, we simply forget it exists: "The Quality of Your Friends is Essential in Determining Your Success." (We don't say it to our kids like that, but if we did we might remember it better.)tetrispic So here's the rub. A person that is constantly negative, is more likely to be surrounded by equally negative people and less likely to be surrounded by positive and successful people.

The reverse is also true. A positive person, is likely to be surrounded by a more positive and happy group of friends. Now the questions: "Which group of friends is going to provide more opportunities for success, more mentoring and more meaningful advice? " So if you want to be successful, you need to surround yourself with others who are becoming successful. If you want to be surrounded by people on the path of success, then you need to have a positive attitude and be filled with the joy of life. And if you want to have a joyful and positive attitude, you need to focus on your gratitude. You must be grateful for Everything you have.  

There is a principal in psychology called the "Tetris Effect". (You can watch a 5 minute about it on youtube later: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae-ypgdd5-8 ) Basically, it is the idea that your brain picks up on patterns and forms a habit of looking for them. Then it Automatically seeks those patterns in various parts of your life.  So, players of the game "Tetris" were observed as they sought patterns on grocery store shelves and rearranged items to form patterns similar to the ones their brain had learn to recognize in the game.

You can apply this principle to Gratitude. Simply practice every single day finding 5 or 10 things that you are grateful for. Make it a habit. Be consistent. It won't be long before your brain will consistently find things that you can be grateful for. Your life will be filled with more and more gratitude, you will see an increase in your level of happiness and YOUR SUCCESS WILL BE INEVITABLE. It is simply a matter of life bringing more of what we focus on into our lives.  If you can learn to focus on the things in your life that you are grateful for, then you will find that more and more of those things will appear in your life.  It is up to you to choose, and if you choose to be grateful, you will be amazed at the difference it will make...starting right now.