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Today's
quotation:
Our
attitude tells the world what we expect in return. If
it's a cheerful, expectant attitude, it says to everyone
with whom we come in contact that we expect the best in
our dealings with the world. You see, we tend to
live up to our expectations. And others give to us,
as far as their attitudes are concerned, what we expect.
Our attitude is something we can control. We
can establish our attitude each morning when we start our
day--in fact, we do just that, whether or not we realize
it. And the people in our family--all the people in
our world--will reflect back to us the attitude we
present to them. It is, then, our attitude toward
life that determines life's attitude toward us. Cause
and effect. Everything we say or do will cause a
corresponding effect. If we're cheerful, glad to be
experiencing this miracle of life, others will reflect
that good cheer back to us. We are the kind of
people others enjoy being around.
Earl Nightingale
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Today's
Meditation:
I
believe that Bernie Siegel wrote one of my favorite
passages about the effects of attitude. He tells the
story of a woman who didn't like her job at all because of
the way her co-workers treated her. She decided to
quit, and on the day that was to be her last day, she woke
up happy, looking forward to leaving the job. She
went to work feeling happy, and acting happy.
Amazingly
enough, her co-workers responded to her new attitude by
reflecting back to her a similar attitude, one that was
very pleasant to her. She had been miserable at work
all that time because she had gone to work with a negative
attitude, and her co-workers responded by treating her in
the same way she was acting. With this new
perspective, though, she enjoyed her day at work, and she
ended up staying there and working for a very long time.
I
was brought up indirectly to be reactionary, to think that
all of the conditions of my life were subject to the winds
of chance. If I was miserable, I was miserable
because of the way someone else treated me. If I was
happy, I was so because something good had happened to
me. I had to learn later in life that I determine my
own attitude. If someone treats me badly, then I
have the choice of letting their treatment affect my
attitude or letting myself determine my own
attitude. If I let it get to me, then I truly am letting
it get to me--I'm allowing the problem to happen.
I
have a simple way of looking at other people's treatment
now--a person did something unpleasant to me either
because they wanted to hurt me or because they weren't
aware that their action was hurtful. In the first
case, I don't want to allow someone who is low enough to
want to hurt someone else affect my peace of mind.
In the second case, if it was unintentional then there's
no need to feel bad about it. In both cases, I can
hold on to my own peace of mind simply because of my
attitude concerning their actions.
We
can control our attitudes, and if we do so well, we can be
people that other people love to be around. And if
they love to be around us, we can teach them many
important things about how wonderful they are as unique
creations in this vast universe. If we can teach
them well, they can find the positive attitudes within
themselves. Our positive attitudes can grow beyond
ourselves and affect the rest of the world in very
positive ways. And as we affect the world
positively, that positive glow will reflect right back at
us, and life will hold that shine that we know inside it
should hold.
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