Having a Positive Attitude

Though this article was posted before, I felt that it fit perfect with the next item in the Image is Everything Series. It is also a very fun and touching article to read, especially when you get to the story about Jerry.
We all have our ups and downs, but do we ever think about who else our attitude may affect? If you think about the last time you were in a bad mood who was it benefiting? Did you feel better because you were depressed about your day? How do you think your friends/family feel when you are in a bad mood? I think bad moods are a flaw with the human mind. In most cases it does nothing but harm the mental well being of people. In some cases it could be said that attitude’s drive motivation such as failing an exam in school may cause one to work harder for the next test. But what’s to say that one can’t have a positive attitude about the present and the future by learning from the past and improving in the future.

How to have a positive attitude?

Learn from the past, don’t dwell on it. Live for today and make today a good day.

It is a hard thing to just forget about the past, but when you find yourself dwelling on the past, just ask yourself “How is this helping me by dwelling on something that is in the past?” If there is not a clear answer, then you need to stop thinking about the past. Move forward with positive outlook learning from the past to avoid the events that made you have a poor attitude.

• Ask yourself “How is this helping me by dwelling on something that is in the past?”
•  Continuously remind yourself to be positive in the present.
• Avoid people or change activities that make you feel bad.
• Stop before speaking and think about the positive side of every situation. Remember positivity creates positive people, so speaking positivity is a must.
• Eliminate Stress as it is the most common cause of a bad attitude.
1. Try meditating for 15 minutes when stress has you down.
2. Exercise regularly and whenever additional stress relief is needed.

Having a good attitude has so many great benefits. By consistently striving to have a good attitude, your feeling about life in general will be better, your relationships will be fuller, and it will lead to success in whatever you do. As far as success, creating friends and networking is essential and having a positive attitude will make that task much easier.

Don’t make excuses, because your life is your own and only you can control what makes you have a poor attitude. Changing is hard, but the consequences of not changing can bring much harder times in the future. One will never know what they are missing until they have successfully become a positive person.

To motivate you to make a change in your attitude about life, here is a short story about a guy with a perfect attitude. Notice how people feeling about him and how his attitude helps him.

Read this, and let it really sink in…Then choose how you start your day tomorrow…

 

Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, “If I were any better, I would be twins!” He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?” Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life. “Yeah, right, it’s not that easy,” I protested. “Yes it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It’s your choice how you live life.”

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?” I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. “the first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door,” Jerry replied. “Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?”

I asked.

Jerry continued, “…The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘he’s a deadman’. I knew I needed to take action.” “What did you do?” I asked. “Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes’ I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Bullets!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead’.” Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

For further information on having a positive attitude, visit these useful sites.

Twenty One days to a positive attitude.
Have a positive Attitude
Keys to having a positive attitude.

attitude, Bad Mood, If I were any better Id be twins, meditate, Mood, positive attitude, relationships, stress