photo credit: think cink

Atti­tude is a lit­tle thing that makes a big dif­fer­ence. ~Win­ston Churchill

Atti­tude. Some­thing that can make such a dif­fer­ence in your life. Have a pos­i­tive atti­tude and you will tend to be a hap­pier per­son. Have a neg­a­tive atti­tude, and you will tend to a per­son who is more eas­ily upset. I had a great exam­ple of a pos­i­tive atti­tude a cou­ple of days ago.

I am involved in our local cub scout group. This past week the boys had all made boats and we raced them in rain gut­ters. You could see some kids would eas­ily get upset if their boat didn’t win. And the next time up they wouldn’t try very hard, expect­ing to lose again. And then there were oth­ers that were gung ho to improve on their pre­vi­ous boat runs. How­ever, there was one boy who stood out amongst every­one else. His atti­tude exuded pos­i­tiv­ity all the way around. In fact, he had prob­a­bly spent the most time design­ing and build­ing his boat, while oth­ers just put some­thing together real fast. And yet, his boat just kept on los­ing. Every­thing he tried was to no avail. But after every race, he always had a big smile on his face. Happy to have had the chance to race. Oh, he was look­ing for rea­sons as to why he hadn’t done well. But it didnt’ affect his atti­tude. He remained pos­i­tive, while oth­ers would have eas­ily got­ten down on them­selves. And he was just as proud of the design he’d come up for his boat. What a great exam­ple. It’s not always about fin­ish­ing first. It’s about tak­ing pride in what you have done (built a boat), and keep­ing a pos­i­tive atti­tude, espe­cially in tougher times (for a first grade boy this could qual­ify as tough times).

We can all learn a les­son here. It can be very easy to start to see the neg­a­tive in a sit­u­a­tion when things aren’t going our way. Look for the pos­i­tive. It can be easy to get down on your­self when some­thing doesn’t go the way you expected. Look for ways to do things dif­fer­ently next time. It can be easy to com­plain about the things going on around you. Look for ways to make a pos­i­tive dif­fer­ence in those things you believe in. In short, let your atti­tude be a cat­a­lyst for bring­ing pos­i­tive improve­ment into this world.

photo credit: col­lagekid

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Some­times courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day say­ing, I will try again tomor­row.” — Mary Anne Rad­macher

Ever have one of those days where things don’t go quite as planned? And you’re not sure you want to try <what­ever> again? Don’t give up on your dreams. Per­se­ver­ance is what wins in the end. It’s the ones who stick to what they believe in, keep try­ing new things, who find suc­cess in life. Maybe the dreams change along the way. That’s ok. So what if oth­ers don’t believe in you. You have the choice to con­tinue on — do it! Your life hap­pens once, make it great! Some­time you’ll fail, but think of fail­ing as learn­ing another way not to do <what­ever>. We learn the most from our fail­ures, so what a great way to learn. And you’re doing it the way you want to. So have the courage today to lis­ten to that voice in your head — who knows where it will take you!

photo credit: straightedge217“

More impor­tant than the quest for cer­tainty is the quest for clar­ity” — Fran­cois Gau­tier

What kind of clar­ity do you have in your life? Can you clearly visu­al­ize where you are in your life, and where you want to be?

We live in a world sur­rounded by “noise”. Noise from tele­vi­sion, work, radio, PDA’s, cell phones, Ipods, par­ent­ing, social­iz­ing, etc. The list goes on and on. And it can begin to con­sume all our wak­ing hours. And some­times are non-waking hours as well. With all these con­ve­niences we have in our life, we can eas­ily find our­selves going through life in cruise con­trol. And sud­denly, we ask our­selves, where has our life gone.

This is the very rea­son we need clar­ity in our lives. This is where I believe we need to step away from some of the noise in our lives, and take time to reflect. Reflect on what we want from life, reflect on our dreams (some­time long for­got­ten), reflect on our inner­most desires, reflect on what makes our heart sing, … Tak­ing the time to do this will lead us (some­time quickly, some­times slowly) to the life we desire.

Doing this task is impor­tant, but not urgent. That’s why we leave it on the back burner. And all of a sud­den, ten years/twenty years/or more have passed. It must become a reg­u­lar habit. And to make it a reg­u­lar habit, we must do this activ­ity with­out all the “noise” we are sur­rounded by. This quiet time can come in many dif­fer­ent forms. Med­i­ta­tion when you wake up in the morn­ing. A walk around the neigh­bor­hood (with­out your MP3 player). A hike in the woods. A bike ride. Fish­ing at the lake. Wher­ever you can find the time to quiet your life and lis­ten to what your soul has to say. Today for me, that was a bike ride. Later this week it may be a hike in the woods. For some, set­ting a rou­tine can be good (med­i­ta­tion every other morn­ing). For oth­ers, a more fluid sched­ule may work (a hike this week, no tele­vi­sion after 9PM next week). The key is that you find some­thing that works for you. Some­thing that you enjoy doing. And then make it a habit.

What you will find is that over time, your life goals and desires will become more clear. You will begin to see clar­ity in your life, and this will help in lead­ing you in the direc­tion you desire your life to go.

Begin now, this week. Don’t wait — you may never start. Half the bat­tle is just start­ing. So, “Just Do It”. And see what amaz­ing things begin hap­pen­ing in your life!