The significance of attitude in our lives is best described by Oprah Winfrey, “The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude.” What does this mean?
Our limited mind and attitude
When we think of attitude, we think about it in limited way. If you ask yourself and then your friend about what is attitude in life is, I can bet the answer will be very different. Most of the times we answer this question based on our present circumstances. For example if a person is going through a negative phase in life and he is in the beginning phase of it (when the self cannot see any way out), he will say negative things about himself or his friends or life in general. The same person when he is coming out of the same negative phase, he might say things about hope and how tomorrow may be better than today. Once he is out of the the negative territory , he would talk positive about himself, his friends, his life etc.
In any of the above three phases, the attitude of the person in a particular phase determines the length of that phase. In all three situations what the person is describing is his attitude towards life at a particular point. In my view there are two types of attitude – on that we have towards life at a particular instant. And the other is our core attitude towards life which we keep on cultivating throughout our lives since our birth. This core attitude determines the strength and longevity of our attitudes in various phases of our lives. For example, tragedies happen in all our lives. But some people seem to recover very fast from them and while many others seem to sulk in the miseries forever.
What is attitude
Your attitude is your outlook towards yourself, your life and life in general, people around you and the universe etc. As we have just seen there are two types of attitudes we have in our lives – our core attitude and our attitude at a point of time. The core attitude determines the strength and longevity of the non-core attitude which we exhibit during various phases of our lives. In the above example – we are asking the person about his core attitude while he is responding from his non-core attitude.
Hence forth, for the purpose of this simplicity of this post the term attitude would mean “core attitude”.
Importance of attitude in life
Your attitude in life determines your entire life story.
For example your attitude in your life determines:
- You success/failures
- Your health
- Your happiness
- Your prosperity
- Level of satisfaction
- Your friendships and the level of friendships
- Your relationships
- How others perceive you.
- Automatic boundaries around yourself (to the other people)
- Your response to various events in your life.
- Add your point here…..
How to develop a positive attitude in our lives
So how to develop a positive attitude in you life which can enrich you at physical, emotional and spiritual level and make your life story worth telling to everyone around you?
Your attitude is determined by your beliefs in life. To have positive attitude in your life, you need to cultivate and strengthen positive beliefs in your lives. Here are few tips:
1. Think Positive
No matter what a situation is always think positive. It is easier said by done, but this automatically comes through practice. Besides, thinking positive is our natural way to come out of challenges. For example whenever someone is ill and suddenly something urgent comes up and he needs to reach somewhere. He start worrying about his safety and whether he will be able to make it to the place where he wants to go. Immediately in most cases the mind automatically switches to positive thoughts like – “ I am stable”, “I can make it to x place”, “I am feeling better” etc.
2. Use the power of positive assertions
Having positive assertions can be very helpful in life. Analyze your attitude and create few assertions about yourself. For example –
“I am healthy and happy”
“I am prosperous”
“I am satisfied with the resources in my life”
“People and life are good to me”
etc
Repeat these assertions several times during the day. Do this daily till this becomes a belief and you start seeing positive results. Minimum recommended duration is 90 days (it takes around 90 days to make/break beliefs).
3. Read motivational literature
Read self-help books by good authors. Subscribe to and read motivational blogs. Reading takes you attention away from the day to day issues and relaxes your brains muscles. With relaxed mind very soon the subconscious starts absorbing the thoughts from the book and when this is done again and again on daily basis, it forms and strengthens new beliefs. Hence the choice of the author is very important. Many good books and blogs have got people out of negative situations. Some good books/blogs have motivated people to resign from their day jobs and start something on their own.
4. Watch good movies
Avoid movies filled with violence, vulgarity and suffering. Many people in negative circumstances turn to the depressing movies. This is not good thing. Movies like books, relax our brain muscles and then take our attention away from day to day life. Subsequently the thoughts start entering our subconscious which affects our beliefs and the attitudes. Watch movies like “Life is Beautiful”, “Life is wornderful”, “Chariots of fire” etc.
5. Talk to positive people
Talk to the people who are successful, jovial and happy in life. This has contagious effect. A positive and motivational friend can uplift your spirits and motivate you to inculcate some good habits from himself. Find out what you need to change in your attitude and start meeting with people who are your role models in that area.
6. Avoid people with negative attitude
As important it is to find the positive people who can be role models for your attitude shift, it is equally important not to hang around with people who can be detrimental to your attitude. People with negative self-beliefs or negative attitudes, can create restlessness in your minds which takes away your ability to be rational, or your motivation for self-transformation.
7. Avoid gossip & ill-talk
Just like whatever we read/hear/watch, our talk also impacts our subconscious minds. Hence it is very important to choose our words carefully. Avoid talking ill of others and avoid gossip. Not only it is good for your attitude, this will also increase your respect in the community/work place.
Note: You may also like to read another related post – 8 ways to develop positive attitude in life.
