Abraham Lincoln once said,
“You can complain that rosebushes have thorns, or you can rejoice the thorn
bushes have roses.” With his characteristic simplicity of language, our 16th
president made an excellent point about how much attitude and perspective
matter in life.
Lincoln knew a few things
about difficulty, and he showed us more than a few things about why attitude
matters. He was born to a frontier family of humble means and, by the age of
nine, he had witnessed the death of a brother and his mother. As a young man,
he was known to walk for miles just to borrow a book; as president, he refused
to allow the dissolution of the Union or the enslavement of his fellow human
beings. In the midst of the most violent and deadly conflict to happen in the
United States, Lincoln even lost his son. Mostly self-educated and ever
determined to be the best he could be, Lincoln’s success can be entirely
attributed to his attitude.
Attitude, quite simply, is
the way you think and feel, the way you react to the people, events, and things
around you. Generally speaking, people tend to have either a positive attitude
or a negative attitude. Positive people are able to take the good with the bad
and can usually see that even a bad setback isn’t the end of the world. People
with positive attitudes are easy to spot, because they are usually pretty happy
and well adjusted!
People with negative
attitudes are those who just can’t see the positive side of pretty much
anything. It might be a sunny day outside, but the negative person thinks it’s
too cold; or too hot; or too sunny! Negative people are rarely happy with the
world as it is and, instead, grumble constantly about how things should be. Not
only is the glass half empty, it’s the wrong kind of glass and the water is
polluted.
It is important to understand
that your mind is like a garden; what you plant will grow! Your garden needs to
be planted with the seeds of a good attitude and positive thinking. Not only is
it a good idea to maintain a positive attitude, it’s also a vital aspect of
keeping your whole person healthy and living well.
It turns out that positive
thoughts are great for your health, your work ethic, and your overall
happiness. In fact, according to research done by University of North Carolina’s
Barbara
Frederickson, “Positive emotions feel good, and feelings like love, joy,
and contentment can be valuable in and of themselves … These desirable states
built resources that gave our ancestors’ an edge in circumstances that impinged
on their survival.”
That’s right: Attitude is not
only important for our lives, but it’s an essential element of our survival.
So, it’s important to realize that if you want to be a happy person, a productive
person, and to achieve Black Belt excellence, you must fill your mind with
positivity and your life with positive people and influences.
You can do this by:
· Thinking positively about ourselves, our lives, and
our situation
· Hanging around positive people who treat us in
positive ways
· Reading and listening to positive material
