Attitude is Everything!

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One of the hardest things for me to do is to: “Keep an Attitude of Gratitude”.
I guess because it sounds so, so, cheezy. Schmaltzy. Obvious. Corny.

In fact, I wandered thru the Valley of the Shadow of Death a long time with a bad attitude.
Unhappy, miserable and alone much of the time.

My bosses, my coaches, my ex-wives all told me point blank: “ You’ve got a bad attitude”.
And that would piss me off so, I would continue validating their claims.

Tony Robbins said “People are primarily motivated by only TWO things. Pain and pleasure.
And once the pain gets so bad, only then will change occur.

At some point some years ago in my life my misery led me into a Twelve Step Program.
It was there, I kept hearing “Have an attitude of gratitude” over and over.
At first, I wanted to puke. But then, I noticed that all these preachers seemed really happy!

And I finally asked one of the Old Timers, “Well, how do you get this ‘Attitude of Gratitude’, my life sucks!” He smiled at me and asked some questions in rapid fire.

“Do you have a roof over your head? Have you missed any meals? Do you have a car to drive?
What’s that you’re wearing -- a barrel? Are those shoes on your feet? They look new…
Look outside! What’s the weather? It’s always nice we’re having weather!”

I finally had to laugh at myself. He laughed and clapped me on the back.
Then, he handed me a small business card with word written on it that I have kept to this day – which has been over fifteen years! It contains a passage by Evangelist Chuck Swindoll and I keep it pinned to my bulletin board over my desk.

It’s simply titled “Attitude”

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or do.

It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.

It will make or break a company, a church, a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice each day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.

We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only sure thing we can do is play on that one string we have and that is our attitude.  I am convince that Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% is how I react to it.

The only thing we can do, the only thing that is ours to control is our attitude.
So, go forth with an Attitude of Gratitude!