What Difference Do Our Attitudes Make

An attitude is an expression of favor or disfavor toward a person, place, thing, or event (the attitude object). Wikipedia

Attitudes are an expression of our beliefs and mindsets about a person, place, thing or event. 

An attitude first requires a belief to justify and sustain it e.g. if my strongly held belief is that we shouldn’t have overseas immigrants, then my attitude towards such people will be negative and show itself either overtly (in treating this people group badly, avoiding them or criticising them openly - or covertly with subtle inflections in my voice, body language etc).   I may not even be aware that I am behaving in this way. 

We can have attitudes towards authority that are shaped from negative beliefs and mindsets gained from harsh parenting.  We can have a negative attitude towards work which can be influenced by poor self esteem, which may have its roots buried in a negative belief about ourselves we have taken on somewhere in our journey.

How often do we say to our children/teenagers “you need to change your attitude”?  Yes they probably do; but more importantly what is the mindset or belief at the root of it that needs to change.

We choose our attitudes.  We have a choice about how we will respond to people and situations. 

Negative attitudes close doors of opportunity for us, damage our relationships, close our minds to new ways of thinking and generally keep our world small, unhappy and unproductive.

Equally we can choose to have positive attitudes.  People with positive attitudes are more likely to be given favour, be employed, included in social events, have healthy friendships and marriages, achieve their goals etc.  The list is endless.
 
Successful people who achieve their goals and live meaningful lives that impact others have positive attitudes, and see negatives as challenges to be overcome.