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.
