“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou
Our attitude towards life determines life’s attitude towards us. This, to a greater extent, means we shape our own lives.
A person with a poor attitude towards learning for an example, isn’t going to learn that much until he changes his attitude. If we take the attitude that we cannot do something, then we generally will not do it. William James of Harvard University put it this way, “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitude of mind.” Isn’t amazing that we have this wonderful measure of control? Before you can even consider your attitude towards the world, start with the attitude you take with yourself since it is our attitude towards ourselves which determines our attitude towards the world.
We tend to minimize the things we can achieve, we tend to underestimate our power and the goals we can accomplish and instead believe that it’s only others who are capable of accomplishing more in life but not us.
The truth is that we are drowning in information and yet we are starving for wisdom because of the poor attitude we take towards us and ultimately towards the world. There’s abundance of information around us, call it information overload, but we lack the wisdom to use it accordingly. For the longest time in my life I was under the impression that the person who has more information is the one who becomes the happiest, but life has since taught me that it’s not about how much information and knowledge you have but rather how much you use it.
There are many people who are literally living small and frustrating lives simply because they are taking a defensive and doubtful attitude towards themselves and as a result towards life in general.
Attitude is a reflection of a person’s will. It is miraculous and can bring marvellous results for us but we need to patiently train it day by day. Successful people are mainly successful due to their attitude not because of the external conditions. These people take the attitude that they deserve the best that life has to offer. They then achieve remarkable things in life and are called successful, lucky, outstanding, brilliant, magicians and many other wonderful names. They are quite frequently not more brilliant than people by whom they are surrounded, but their attitude towards themselves and life, sets them apart. So, what is your attitude towards yourself? Is your attitude an asset or a liability to you? To get the answer to these questions, just look at the results you are producing and the people you spend most of the time with.
Veli Ndaba is an Insightful Speaker, Life-Coach and Neuro- Linguistic Programming Practitioner, Author of three books (You Are Born to Win, Your Dream is Calling You and SWITCH ON!), Newspaper Columnist and Entrepreneur. To book him to help you and your team unleash your greatness, contact him on veli@velindaba.com, www.velindaba.com and 083 304 9773