Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of North America’s declaration on Independence wisely noted “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on Earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” John C. Maxwell, an American author and speaker noted “People may hear your words, but they feel your attitude.” One of my favorite human beings to have walked our great planet, the late Zig Ziglar, the renowned motivational and sales trainer quoted “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.”

What is attitude? Merriam-Webster defines attitude as ‘a feeling or way of thinking that affects a person’s behavior.’ I want to ask you a few very important thought-evoking set of questions: is our scent once we bathe permanent, or we would need to bathe again tomorrow or day after to continue to smell and feel good? Is the food that we eat today going to fill our appetite up forever? Is the step which you are going to take today to speak to your spouse guarantee a permanent fixture to all the wrong that may happen in the future?  You deciding to work hard today means that you will automatically work hard every day? The answer to all the above questions is obviously a definite ‘No.’ Think about it for a moment more-you need to bathe daily to smell good, eat right daily to maintain a good health and body, have a continuous and engaging interaction with your spouse to ensure that your relationship prospers, and work hard every day with specific goals (and in the process learn to work smart) to achieve success in life. If all these very important aspects of your life need you to work on them continuously (and many other such scenarios) to maintain and grow which means you need to accept responsibility for them, then when it comes to attitude instead of assuming complete responsibility for it too, why do you blame the World and the people outside for your moods, feelings of anxiety, irritation, anger, impatience, jealousy and insecurity?

We say things like “the weather is so horrible today, I don’t feel like working”; “if only she was not in our team, I would have loved my job so much more”, “he/she is lucky to have all the money without any effort, I can never get this lucky.” Such a thought process in the motivational world is popularly known as ‘playing the blame game.’ The reality is playing the blame game is not going to the change the weather outside, remove that person from the team, and make the other guy any less richer. It is only when you change your ATTITUDE will anything really change because it is not what is on the outside which irritates or frustrates you, gets you angry or jealous, it is how you process your world inside which makes all the difference.

We are talking about attitude here and it is important to understand that it can be good or bad, phenomenal or disastrous, driven or depressed. But it is not the thundering clouds or that guy or girl causing you your bad attitude, it is what you are telling yourself. Now, if it really comes down to you and you are any which ways going to determine your attitude, then why not choose a positive, motivated, exciting, and enthusiastic attitude. Now, if you do this, I know you will agree that chances are that your outlook will be that of a winner and since you did change your world on the inside, those rains on the outside might remind you of a nice song that you may ‘hum’ while enjoying that hot cup of coffee. Further, you might look up to that girl in your team and realize-if you want to grow, you need to deal with all kinds of people [and trust me there are some weird kinds], thus, seeing her as an opportunity for you to grow as a person. Also, you might drive inspiration from the one who made it possible for that guy to enjoy all the fortune because someone sometime worked really hard for it-trust me on this.

So folks, remember what we said at the beginning of this article about attitude ‘a feeling or a way of thinking that affects a person’s behavior.’ Change that thinking, that feeling and work on it every day just like you would in any other area of your life to ensure it prospers because positive phenomenal attitude does matter, and, as you will discover, is the starting point to growth, happiness and prosperity in all other areas of your life.

Stay motivated, stay strong!