The Portrait of the Mind: How Your Attitude Defines You And Your Life
Every day you live, you have a choice of how you want to view life and its events.
The longer I live, the more I realize how important it is to choose the right ‘attitude toward life’. It is more important than your past, your education, or your financial situation. It is also more important than what other people think or say or do, and it is more important than your appearance, your talent, or your skills.
Your attitude towards yourself and life will make or break your endeavors and make the difference between a happy home and a miserable home.
I am convinced that life consists of ten percent of what happens to me and ninety percent of how I respond to it.
Our attitude towards life is essentially our thought life turned inside out. It’s something that’s within us and something everyone can see because it’s reflected in, for example, our facial expressions and our body language. Additionally, it is reflected in the kind of decisions we make in life.
Your attitude is essentially the portrait of your mind. A portrait that attracts people or repels them. Always visible, it is our best friend or our worst enemy. It draws people to us or pushes them away.
Thomas Jefferson once said that nothing can stop a man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal, but also nothing and no one can help a man with the wrong mental attitude.
Our attitude determines more than any other factor in our life, our success, and happiness. With the right attitude, seemingly impossible things become possible.
Studies show that your attitude has a greater influence on your success than your IQ. You can be extremely talented and have incredible potential, but if you don’t have the right attitude, it will prevent you from advancing.
You can’t change other people, and you can’t change many circumstances in life. We have no control over that. There’s only one thing we can fully control, and that’s our attitude.
I’d rather have a less talented person with a good attitude than a talented person with a bad attitude.
I have a picture in my home office of a ship on a very turbulent sea, and the reason I have that picture there is that it reminds me of the saying that a calm sea never produced a skilled sailor.
An easy life has never produced a great person. Therefore, it’s not about what I experience, but how I deal with it.
Of all the people I’ve met in my life, I first remember their attitude. And sometimes I also remember what they did or what they were good at.
Therefore, I don’t let myself be held back by what has happened to me, who has wronged me, what I haven’t received, or what didn’t work out. Pain and disappointment are parts of life, and my attitude towards life determines how long I dwell on them.
What I’ve come to believe is that life is about freeing your passion with the right attitude, and passion can be stolen by resentment, blame, or self-pity.
Blame and self-pity never laugh. They frown and never build but destroy.
Viktor Frankl was in the concentration camps, and he said they could take away every right from him except for one thing. His attitude, because that’s his, and if he wants to have a good attitude, no one can force him to adopt a bad one.
That choice of attitude made the difference in Victor Frankel’s life. He said, “They won’t make me hate, I will live in hope. They won’t make me bitter, I will forgive. They won’t make me mean, I will love.”
Every day you live, you have a choice regarding the attitude you adopt, and you can change your entire way of life by changing your way of thinking.