Attitude is your window to the world. . . . and it's your job to keep your window clean.  Sure, I can give you a little encouragement.  And other people can encourage you, too.  But in the end, nobody else can do it for you.

You see, you always have a choice.  You can leave the filth on your window and look at life through a smeared glass.  But there are consequences to that approach--and they're not very pretty.  You'll go through life negative and frustrated.  You'll be unhappy.  You'll achieve only a fraction of what you're capable of achieving.

There's a better way.  When you choose to take out your squeegee and clean your window, life will be brighter and sunnier.  You'll be healthier and happier.  You'll get some ambitious goals, and begin to achieve them.  Your dreams will come alive again!

Still doubting whether you really have the power to change your attitude?  Perhaps you're thinking, "Jeff, that's easy for you to say.  Your attitude wouldn't be so good if you had my problems."

Granted, some really devastating things may have happened to you.  You may have endured much suffering.  Perhaps you're going through some tough times right now.  But, even under the worst circumstances, I still contend that you have the power to choose your attitude.  I'm not saying it's easy.  But the fact remains, the choice is yours.

Let me tell you about a man who is well qualified to speak on the subject of attitude.  His name is Dr. Viktor Frankl, and he went through hell on earth--and managed not only to survive, but to inspire millions of people.  You see, Viktor Frankl endured years of horror as a prisoner in the Nazi death camps.

To make matters worse, his father, mother, brother and his wife died in camps or were killed in gas chambers.  Every day, Frankl and the other prisoners suffered from hunger, cold and brutality.  Can a person control his or her attitude in a situation like that?  Here's what Dr. Frankl had to say about the importance of attitude in his best-selling book, Man's Search for Meaning:

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:  the last of the human freedoms--to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. . . . Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision, and not the result of camp influences alone."

Now, if Dr. Frankl and the other prisoners had the ability to choose their attitudes in the face of such unspeakable suffering, who are we to claim that we cannot take control of our attitudes?

As Hugh Downs has said:  "A happy person is not a person in a certain set of circumstances, but rather a person with a certain set of attitudes."  That's a powerful statement--and it's the truth.

When it's all said and done, you, and you alone, control your attitude.

More thoughts and quotes on attitude.

Your attitude is your choice.  It always is.  We live in an age that has developed the art of shifting blame to very high levels, and sometimes we get caught up in that same tendency.  "Well, if you had my job you wouldn't be so positive."  "If you had my kids, you wouldn't feel so good."  "If only my boss were different, I could be a positive person."  In other words, "My bad attitude is not my fault!"
   The truth is, however, your attitude and mine are always our choice.  No matter how bad things are, no one can force you to have a bad attitude if you don't want to.  Now that should come as really good news because it says our attitudes don't have to be victims of our circumstances or of other people.  We choose our responses.

Mary Whelchel

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