The Element of a New Attitude and Its Hope for Becoming Unstoppable in Reaching Our Goals

We must be as this tree - bare...each new leaf that we sprout in spring reflective of a brand new attitude

What will make you unstoppable?

Is it having a valuable talent or skill?

Is it being credentialed?

Is it having a good background?

Is it being knowledgeable?

Is it looking good and dressing well?

A man whose first name was Thomas, and who authored one of the most famous documents in history, said it was something else.

He said it was a person’s attitude.

A person’s attitude would make him or her unstoppable in reaching his or her goal.

These were his exact words:

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.”

Do you have the right mental attitude?

Perhaps it’s time to do an attitude check.

If you find out you have the wrong mental attitude, you can change it.

There is no better time than the start of a brand new year to wipe the slate clean and start afresh.

Take the attitude check…

Attitude Check 1:

Are you pessimistic about the future?

Then you have the wrong mental attitude.

How can you achieve anything, reach your potential, if you are negative and pessimistic about the future?

No matter where you are in life, no matter how big the challenges facing you, only if you believe things can get better, can they get better.

Only if you believe a breakthrough is around the corner, can a breakthrough be around the corner.

Play your part to make that happen.

Adopt the right attitude and put one foot in front of the other.

A hopeful attitude is an absolute necessity.

Attitude Check 2:

Do you constantly compare yourself with others, or to how you did in the past?

Then you have the wrong mental attitude.

You are judging yourself by the standards of others, or by a standard that may no longer be relevant for you.

Judging limits you and is a trap.

Willie Stargell (one of the great names of baseball) wisely said, “Judgment traps you within the limitations of your comparisons. It inhibits freedom.”

When you compare yourself with others, or dwell on what you did in the past, and try to keep pace with that or make that your focus, you limit yourself.

You limit yourself to stale choices, or to the paths and choices others have made.

What good is that?

You will achieve much more, if you instead work with where you are now, and work with all that you are uniquely blessed with.

Your unique advantages, skills, gifts and abilities.

Your unique background.

Your unique training and experience.

Your unique interests.

Your unique eye, your unique hand, your unique voice.

And the unique opportunities before you.

Be in tune with what's possible - what you can bring to the opportunities of the present moment -  and you will find the right answers and the right course.

If you do something just because everyone else is doing it, or because you think you have to conform to some ideal, it will exhaust you, frustrate you, leave you feeling empty, even make you ill, because it ignores the fact of who you are and where you are.

My post The Element of Understanding That It’s Never Too Early or Too Late To Begin Or Do Something - Part 3 tells you how I made myself ill by trying to conform to an ideal standard.

Craft a unique success and a unique glory, relevant to your present circumstances.

Forget about comparing yourself to anybody, or what was before.

Make this a goal for the New Year.

Attitude Check 3:

Are you afraid to ask questions?

Then you have the wrong mental attitude.

Og Mandino, who wrote the bestselling book, “The Greatest Salesman in the World” said, “Take the attitude of a student, never be too big to ask questions, never know too much to learn something new.”

You will remain stuck in ignorance, unless you can be honest and humble about what you don’t know.

You have to look for the gaps in your knowledge and ability, and seek ways to fill those gaps.

Sucking up your pride if you have to.

Train yourself to ask questions.

Successful authors do it….

Nicholas Sparks, author of The Notebook and Nights in Rodanthe says, “By reading a lot of novels in a variety of genres, and asking questions, it's possible to learn how things are done - the mechanics of writing, so to speak - and which genres and authors excel in various areas.”

Train yourself to ask questions.

Successful architects do it…..

Thom Mayne, one of Los Angeles’s 3 leading architects, and a Pritzker prize winner says: “Architecture is a result of a process of asking questions and testing them and re-interrogating and changing in a repetitive way.”

Train yourself to ask questions.

Successful entrepreneurs do it….

Ben Horowitz, founder of OpsWare and Andreessen Horowitz says, “In my own experience as a C.E.O., I would find myself laying awake at 3 A.M. asking questions about my business, and there weren't management books out there that could help me.”

Like Horowitz, you may be in an original situation, and you may have to ask your own unique questions.

But your road to knowledge and insight starts there.

Start asking questions.

Ask different people the same questions.

Keep asking the questions until you find the answers.

Make this one of your goals for the New Year.

Attitude Check 4:

Do you make excuses for your failures?

Then you have the wrong mental attitude.

George Washington Carver, the American botanist and inventor who defied all odds, said, “Ninety-nine percent of the failures come from people who have the habit of making excuses.”

Benjamin Franklin, The First American, said, “He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else.”

Carlos Santana, the 10 time Grammy award winner, observed, “Most people don't have that willingness to break bad habits. They have a lot of excuses and they talk like victims.”

Excuses keep us from reaching our goals.

It is easy to make excuses about why we can’t do this or do that.

It is easy to make excuses for why something went wrong.

It is easy to make excuses for why we continue to do the things we do.

It’s easy to think of ourselves as helpless victims of fate.

Imagine if any of the people in my post How To Let Nothing Come Between You and a Fulfilling Life thought themselves helpless victims of fate?

We would not have had Marlee Matlin's brilliant performance in Children of A Lesser God.

Imagine if Laura Hillenbrand decided to let her debilitating illness be an excuse to do nothing with her life?

We would have been denied of two great books to read, and two great movies to watch: Sea Biscuit and Unbroken.

Stop making excuses.

Stop acting like a helpless victim of fate.

Stop being good for nothing but making excuses, or having excuses made for you by other people.

It will take you nowhere.

Dust yourself off and make a sincere effort.

Change whatever needs to be changed.

My post Path to Change may give you some inspiration.

Make this a goal for the New Year.

Attitude Check 5:

Are you quick to find someone to blame?

Then you have the wrong mental attitude.

Blaming someone is a variation of making excuses.

It’s easy to play the blame game.

It’s much harder to accept responsibility.

J. Michael Straczynski (of Amazing Spider Man comics fame) says: “People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.”

As Straczynski says, if we want to get on with our lives and forget about the past, we have to stop blaming.

Every minute spent blaming, is a minute of wasted time we could use to improve or correct a situation.

Make this a goal for the New Year.

Attitude Check 6:

Do you think it is okay to cut corners?

Then you have the wrong mental attitude.

When we cut corners, we don’t care about whether we are doing things the right way.

And if we don’t care about whether we are doing things the right way, we won’t go far.

Abraham Lincoln said, “I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have. I must stand with anybody that stands right, and stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.”

Joel Osteen, (Senior Pastor of Lakewood Church, mentioned in my post 4 Lessons Learned From Spinning in the Rain) says, “Keep a good attitude and do the right thing even when it's hard. When you do that you are passing the test. And God promises you your marked moments are on their way.”

Arnold H Glasow, who wrote Glasow’s Gloombusters at the age of 92, said, “Success is simple. Do what's right, the right way, at the right time.”

We should aim to do things the right way.

We will make mistakes.   

But when we make mistakes, we should recognize our mistakes and vow to do things the right way the next time round.

That is the right mental attitude.

Each one of us should make this a goal in the New Year.

Attitude Check 7:

Do you get flustered when things don’t go as planned?

Then you have the wrong mental attitude.

Brian Tracy (one of the great names in sales training and personal development says) commented: “You cannot control what happens to you, but you can control your attitude toward what happens to you, and in that, you will be mastering change rather than allowing it to master you.”

Become the master of your emotions rather than let your emotions become the master of you.

Whenever things go wrong, take a few deep breaths.

Do not say anything.

Do not write anything.

Do not do anything.

Wait for the blood to stop pumping in your head and for your thoughts to become collected.

If you learn to meditate (and the sooner you do it the better), you will be able to go to your calm center whenever things go wrong.

Want to learn to meditate?

You can find out how I did that here.

You can also use visualization techniques.

You can read about visualization techniques I and others have used in my posts The Element of Imagination and Its Hope for Helping Us Develop Toughness With Compassion and Artful Flair and my post The Element of Choosing the Right Tools for Your Path and Its Hope for Helping You Put One Foot in Front of the Other.

James Allen, whose book As A Man Thinketh everyone should read, said, “The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success, his influence, his power for good. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom.”

A cool mind is not just one of the most beautiful jewels of wisdom, it is one of the greatest assets.

If you have houses, cars, horses, stocks, bonds, rental properties, jewelry, valuable art, but you don’t have a cool mind, you don’t have one of the greatest assets.

But you can start working on that now.

Make this a goal for the New Year.

Commit yourself to these new attitudes and you will be unstoppable in reaching your goals.

Cheers to that!

As always, thanks for reading and have a great day and week….M…..a Pearl Seeker like you.  Thanks to Ajay and Ananda for their comments and wishes on Facebook, and thanks to the rest of you for your likes, pins and votes.  Much appreciated.  Or  Grtz as they say in some parts of Europe (thanks to Wendy who lives in Belgium for teaching me that).

P.S. 1 – Can you guess the last name of the man named Thomas and the name of the famous document he authored?

P.S. 2 – If you liked this post, do come back for part 2 of Attitude Check next week.