Attitudes and Perspectives: Success or Failure is a Choice
06.3.2009 in Grow Yourself, Grow Your Wealth, Positive Thinking: The Key To Your Success by Josh
There are two guys. Neither is particularly remarkable by worldly standards. Neither is especially good or bad looking. Neither of them did particularly well or poorly in school. Neither of them come from particularly successful heritage. Both were picked on in high school. Both had rough relationships with parents and other family. Both of them worked in menial jobs. Both desired a better future.
What I’m driving at here is that both of these guys were just normal, everyday-type people who shared many of the same struggles, challenges, successes, and aspirations. This is important to emphasize because today these two guys who were so similar could not be more different. One is now managing a department he created within his company, has a beautiful wife, and a baby girl on the way. The other is in a dead-end job he sees no way out of, would probably be divorced if he thought he could afford it, and curses his lot in life. Their Attitudes and Perspectives, and not their circumstances, have made all the difference.
Attitudes define who we are. They define whether we’re positive or negative. Survivors or quitters. Leaders or sheep. Rich in Life, or poor in it. Givers or takers. Attitudes affect every single facet of our lives. Every choice we make. Every thought we entertain. Every relationship we enter.
The one man never went to college. Didn’t see the need to. He was satisfied with what he had while he *worked* on something better. At his first job, he out-performed his peers by such a margin that his boss accused him of cheating the system. When he showed him the simple ingenuity he had used to acheive the results he did, he was able to position himself as an expert, which lead to a promotion, which lead to more innovation, which lead to another promotion, and finally he’s now above his original boss!
The other man did go to college. He never did like where he was though, and so he ended up spending a lot of time and money in school and ended up with little in the way of a degree. He’s still at the job he worked through college even though he doesn’t want to be. He’s even in same position although he could advance if he really wanted to.
With nothing but drive, perseverence, and seeing the opportunity wherever he was at, one man has created a solid future for himself. With nothing but negativity, excuses, and a comfort with taking what he’s given, the other man barely subsists and emits infectious despair. Their starkly contrasting Attitudes have created starkly contrasting lives, and the truth is that both are living the life they’ve chosen. Our attitudes, not our circumstances, define our path. Period.
If Attitudes define our path, then Perspectives define how we live. Once you’ve chosen the path you will take, it will be your Perspectives that will keep you on it and moving forward. Some people look forward, some people look backward. It’s that simple. Some people let every bump in the road change their course, some people plow through obstacle after obsticle to keep moving forward.
The forward looking person will see opportunity at every turn. Opportunity for growth. Opportunity for service. They have a definition of what success means to them be it financial, intellectual, emotional, or spritual. They see that “everyday life” isn’t really all that “everyday,” so they’re able to move ahead toward their “success” in a million tiny steps.
The backward looking person misses opportunity after opportunity looking for the “Big Score,” which they will inevitably miss as well because they won’t be prepared to see it. “If Only…” is the mantra of those that insist on looking backward because the past dictates the future.
As you build your business, and indeed progress through life, you will encounter successes and setbacks. That’s an inescapable Given. What you need to do today is to start cultivating the positive Attitudes and Perspectives that will be there when you need them. Opportunity is everywhere. Challenge abounds. It doesn’t matter how you’ve lived up ’til now, how many things you’ve tried and failed, only what you do from this day forward. So Take a deep breath, Choose your path, Take the first step, Never look backward, and See it through!
I wish you the greatest success in all your endevours.
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