The process of human change begins within us. We
all have tremendous potential. We all desire good
results from our efforts. Most of us are willing to
work hard and to pay the price that success and
happiness demand.
Each of us has the ability to put our unique human
potential into action and to acquire a desired result.
But the one thing that determines the level of our
potential, that produces the intensity of our activity,
and predicts the quality of the result we receive is our
attitude.
Attitude determines how much of the future we are
allowed to see. It decides the size of our dreams and
influences our determination when we are faced with
new challenges. No other person on earth has
dominion over our attitude. People can affect our
attitude by teaching us poor thinking habits or
unintentionally misinforming us or providing us
with negative sources of influence, but no one can
control our attitude unless we voluntarily surrender
that control.
No one else "makes us angry." We make ourselves
angry when we surrender control of our attitude.
What someone else may have done is irrelevant.
We choose, not they. They merely put our attitude
to a test. If we select a volatile attitude by becoming
hostile, angry, jealous or suspicious, then we have
failed the test. If we condemn ourselves by believing
that we are unworthy, then again, we have failed the
test.
If we care at all about ourselves, then we must accept
full responsibility for our own feelings. We must learn
to guard against those feelings that have the capacity to
lead our attitude down the wrong path and to strengthen
those feelings that can lead us confidently into a better
future.
If we want to receive the rewards the future holds in trust
for us, then we must exercise the most important choice
given to us as members of the human race by maintaining
total dominion over our attitude. Our attitude is an asset,
a treasure of great value, which must be protected accordingly.
Beware of the vandals and thieves among us who would injure
our positive attitude or seek to steal it away.
Having the right attitude is one of the basics that success
requires. The combination of a sound personal philosophy
and a positive attitude about ourselves and the world around
us gives us an inner strength and a firm resolve that influences
all the other areas of our existence.
