Attitude Isn't Everything

What is attitude?

Attitude is the psychological condition resulting from a judgment or belief regarding life, a situation, a person, a group of people, or an event, past, present, or future.

Obviously, since it is based on a belief or perception, attitude is subjective. Attitude falls into the category of psychological thought and perception.

Beliefs based on past experiences create an attitude. Beliefs such as:

·      School sucks. It’s a total waste of time and I’m only going because I have to.

·      Life sucks. I’d kill myself, but I don’t have the guts.

·      Life is awesome. It’s all about having fun.

·      Life has a purpose. I have a purpose: to bring love and peace to everyone.

·      I’m here to become enlightened.

·      Step aside, just passing through...

If you’re not completely present and without psychological thought, then you have an attitude.

Attitude is Up to You

An attitude can be “positive” or “negative.”     

     

A negative attitude can be bad for your mental and physical heath, and it can be bad on many practical levels as well.

I mean, let’s say you’re trying to take your kid to soccer and it’s rush hour. On rare occasions, traffic is so horrendous, you get there a little before it’s over.

Negative Attitude: What’s the point of trying to get there? I’m going to use up a ton of gas and if I get stuck, I’ll have wasted a good hour and a half and my boy won’t even get to kick a soccer ball.

Positive Attitude: We’re going to get there on time, no matter what. If there’s a traffic jam, I’ll trust my GPS to find a better route.

Often people with negative attitudes tell themselves they’re just being realistic. They believe a pessimist is just an optimist with experience. They believe they’re being realistic because more often than not, it appears that when they do the worst-case scenario thing, the worst case always seems to be the outcome. A believer in the law of attraction (see description below) would likely say it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Ultimately, the truth is that a realistic attitude is actually not realistic at all. It’s not what really is. The reality of the present moment is completely without judgment. It is void of psychological thought and therefore without any attitude whatsoever.

For those times that we are not present, however, we are bound by judgmental, psychological thought; we must believe in something. This is the common human condition, and in this state, it is just as much a self-deception to perceive something as being positive as it is to see it as something negative.

And your attitude projects upon the outcome of the events in your life. If you feel what you are doing is important and worthwhile, it will be so. Therefore, why not choose to feel that way?

Attitude and Success

Successful people need only one thing to become successful: they must believe they are successful. 

That’s all it takes.

Of course, believing yourself to be successful is not easy. Most of us have to go through a career or two, earn a ton of money, make the headlines, or achieve at least one major thing society has conditioned us to believe is the hallmark of a successful person, in order for us to believe we are truly successful and not just going through some new age mood-making deal that won’t last past lunch.

Once we truly believe we are successful, the associated successful-person attitude will follow naturally. This successful attitude will tend to direct successful outcomes to our actions.

Success, however, is completely subjective. To one person, success is having a ton of wealth and material possessions, and to another, it’s complete detachment from the material world.

In fact, you don’t have to do anything or achieve anything to be successful. All you have to do is believe that you are successful right now and you will be. Since in the final analysis, we define what is success.

While most of us accept society’s definition of success, we must first believe in these definitions in order for them to become real to us. Of course, society makes it easy to accept its definitions. There are maps to success out there, paths to follow, methods to learn.

Gyms to condition our bodies, schools to condition our minds. All so that one day, we can be considered successful.

Whether you choose to believe in society’s version of success or your own, your perception and beliefs will generate your attitude. 

So why not align yourself with a positive perception of success that suits you best and could lend itself to better mental and physical well-being?

Attitude and Being In Love

When you’re in love, you feel wonderful about everything. In that state, negativity is not allowed to rear its ugly head, especially when it comes to the person you love. You just see the beautiful things. And sometimes this attitude spreads and everything seems beautiful, even things that others might find ugly. People in love tend to enjoy a better mental and physical well-being, placing jetpacks on the whole positive attitude deal.

Attitude and the Law of Attraction

The law of attraction is a belief that states that by focusing on positive or negative thoughts one brings forth corresponding positive or negative results.

This isn’t a post supporting the law of attraction. There seems to be a certain degree of validity to this line of thinking, in my experience, but I believe that law-of-attraction followers tend to take it to extremes, like it’s some be-all and end-all solution to life.

My experience is that unless you can be present and free from psychological thought, you will eventually tire of the lie—even if it is a positive, happy lie. The practice of letting go of psychological thought, be it positive or negative, breaks the cycle of good and bad, and removes attitude and judgment from the experience that is life.

Final Thoughts on Attitude

If you must believe, believe in something positive and enjoy that positive attitude. Then let it go and just live.

Now.

No judgment. No belief.

No attitude.