Attitudes

Often our attitudes play a more important part in our lives than we realize...
It is our attitude that determines how we approach life in general, but also how we enter into any given situation.

Our attitudes may range from ‘a positive attitude’ to ‘having a chip on your shoulder’ or ‘a negative attitude’; and anything in between. Looking at attitudes, there are a few things that are truly interesting to me:
Where did the particular attitude come from, in other words, what previous experience has sparked the attitude?
Is the attitude productive in living my life?
Do I want to change the attitude, and if so, how do I go about doing that?

Attitudes can stem from any variety of sources or experiences. Some attitudes we may have ‘inherited’ from our upbringing, while we have adopted other attitudes because of experiences we have had in life. Knowing where a particular attitude has come from, can help us becoming aware of how the attitude works in our lives.

From this premise, all our attitudes are valid; there are no ‘bad’ attitudes. It is a good idea though to examine whether an attitude is productive in our lives or not.
When we approach life with an attitude that the whole world wants the very best for us, chances are pretty good that we run in to situations that help us on our path. When our attitude is that everybody ‘out there’ is trying to hurt us, we may find ourselves running into people that have a mindset to take advantage of us...

Either way, looking at these perspectives gives us the insight needed to determine if we want to change an attitude, or not.

There is hardly ever a nice sharp line that marks when you want to change an attitude, or when you want to keep it ‘as is’. Working with our attitudes almost always involves sliding scales.
For instance, I have an attitude that people are trustworthy. And most of the time they are. But that doesn’t mean that I leave the doors unlocked, or the windows open, when I go run errands. For me, the balance I have found with this attitude works well in day-to-day life.
On the other hand, I can have a tendency to down-play my abilities, and to not realize the proper value of my property, or even myself. That is an attitude which doesn’t work well for me; one that I am working on changing.

I use affirmations to change an attitude ~ repeating the affirmation whenever it comes to mind during the day (independent from the actual attitude) for a number of weeks. And, certainly where it concerns property, I may ask friends how they gauge its value, as this gives me a ‘reality check’.

Changing an attitude doesn’t usually happen overnight, it takes dedication and persistence.
But the reward is that we can start attracting more positive, productive situations into our lives!