Passage 1
The Power of Personal Attitudes
Each of us is made up of various physical, vital, and mental parts. There is our physical body and its organs, muscles, etc; the vital being with its sensations, emotions and feelings, and the mental part with its thoughts, memories, reasoning power, beliefs, etc. Somewhere between our emotions and our thought processing lie our attitudes -- our emotional perceptions about life, about others, even towards our own selves. Attitudes generally express positively and negatively. E.g. when I have good feelings towards my work or towards others, the attitude is positive. When I feel reluctant to do certain things that are necessary, or show hostility towards certain individuals, then my attitude is negative.


Attitudes About Ourselves, Others, Life

Though we have many attitudes about all aspects of life, if we look a little closer we can identify three basic types—those that have to do with ourselves, those we have about others and the objects around us, and those we have towards life itself. An example of a negative attitude about ourselves is having low self-esteem, or low self-confidence. An example of a wanting attitudes about others is a feeling ill will towards another person, or being mistrustful of others. An example of a negative attitude towards life is being pessimistic that things will never turn out well. The good news however is that if we change any negative attitude to the positive, life tends to quickly respond. Consider this true story, where a person changed her attitude about certain people:

A woman was working as a temporary employee for a large medical organization. For months, she complained about certain coworkers at her job. At the time, she had decided to develop a 30-day plan to secure a full-time position. One part of her plan was to change her attitude toward these particular individuals. In the days that followed, she persisted in following her plan, especially focusing on her wanting attitude toward others. She was shocked however when a month into her plan, she was suddenly asked to work for the organization full time -- her first non-temporary job in nearly a decade!

That is the power of changing a negative attitude toward others.


Negative Expressions Attracts Negative Response

So far we have indicated that changing a negative attitude can attract sudden instances of good fortune. Inversely, if we take to a negative attitude, we can attract instances of bad fortune. For example, if we speak negatively about another person, it is likely that problematic circumstances will arise.

A man “A” met a fellow instructor “B” before a class he was to perform that day. One of the things they discussed were problems they had experienced in earlier classes. In particular, A kept talking about how the students at a certain client were particularly difficult to work with. He persisted in expressing his feelings. Though that instructor rarely had problems with his students, later on that day, as well as in the next two classes, he had a series of difficulties with his students!

As we see, when we express negative sentiment in life—whether it is ill will towards certain individuals or complaining about situations—we tend to elicit ill fortune. The best approach then is to avoid all negative expressions or complaining about others. In our moment-to-moment activities, we need to be mindful of our thoughts and feelings, and catch any negative expression—whether it us a flawed attitudes, a limited opinions, or a hasty, reflexive reaction. This is indeed serious business, because such expressions can literally destroy a work.


The Power of an Overall Positive Attitude

In addition to having the right attitudes towards others and life around us, it is always best to have an overall positive attitude. Here’s another real-life incident to show you what I mean:

A management consultant was hoping to have a key meeting with the principle officers of a company with over $100 billion in assets. For days, he fretted about the deal as the potential client failed to contact him. He developed greater and greater doubts that the meeting would ever take place. Finally, he remembered that it was important to have a positive attitude in these situations. He decided to change his attitude about the potential meeting from worry and concern to being positive. A very short time later, he was contacted by the client that the meeting could in fact take place. He was thrilled. In addition, years of high-level consulting work followed with the client!