MAKE YOUR LIFE; DON’T MAR IT

A couple of days ago, I met a few of my friends.

After the initial discussions about the pandemic, the lockdown and its extensions, the pain of sanitizing one's hands all the time, etc., they began discussing their all-time favourite topic - ‘Politics’.

I don’t like to discuss politics amongst friends; I strongly believe that politics divide friendship. When it comes to this particular topic, if the rival parties are strongly biased against one another, it may create enmity amongst them.

After hearing this initial statement, I expressed my opinion once again saying, “We always waste our time on this topic, it does not impact our day-to-day life much. Life is so much more beautiful and there are so many other interesting topics to talk about!”

I expressed these opinions of mine, once again.

The expression of my opinions is generally followed by a long awkward silence before criticism. So, I wait for one of my friends to get on with it. Before long, one of my friends tells me that I’m showing my ‘attitude’ too much. This got me perplexed.

Even without hearing further of their explanation, I started thinking about the concept of attitude. What is attitude?

(Image from Google)

Wikipedia defines it as “An attitude is an outward expression (through body gestures) of our state of mind. It is the way you think, feel or behave.”

In short, it is the mirror of our mind. It is a showcase of our mind.

If we play a number game, giving numbers to our English alphabets serially, like A=1, B=2, J=10, U=21 and Z=26. By the addition of these numbers for each letter, we get these results for the following words:

Knowledge = 96%

Hard Work = 98%

Luck = 47%

Love = 54%

Money = 72%

Leadership = 89%

Attitude = 100%

This proves that it is our attitude that guides our life and it is work that makes it 100%.

They say that one’s attitude can be compared to an iceberg. While it is known that the real size of an iceberg is never really known, we can say our attitude is like the visible tip while the rest of the portion that makes us who we are remains invisible to the naked eye.

What is that invisible portion we don’t show? It consists of values, standards, judgements, motives, ethics, beliefs, etc. To be precise, the invisible part is mostly everything apart from our attitude that causes an impact on our behaviour.

Every person carries his/her own values and standards by which they live their life. Initially, these values and standards are imbibed in us by our parents, our school teachers, our friends, and others who impact us throughout our lives. In due course of time, the person influencing us may change, but someone else always replaces their position. This is the foundation of our future life.

We human beings are ever ready to pass on judgements on any topic or subject. We jump to conclusions and decisions of everything and anything under the sun. This makes our minds preoccupied with prejudice. Many factors play an important role in our judgement. Equal minded friends, relatives and especially social media are major contributors to the opinions that we have today. We get habituated to giving opinions and with time, forget to analyse the situation we’re in.

Motives, ethics, and beliefs help to build our attitude. We must ask ourselves whether our motive is ethically correct or it needs to change. Is our belief system intact? Whom do we believe in? And, why do we believe? 

The correct and true answers will give clarity to our attitude. As we grow, there ought to be certain changes that will modify our attitude.

In short, attitude is not static. It is an ongoing dynamic journey. 

Attitude is not inherited. It is acquired from the surroundings where a person is constantly interacting with others.

There are four types of attitudes. They are:

• Positive Attitude

• Negative Attitude

• Neutral Attitude

• Sicken Attitude

Positive attitude people are those who pay attention to the good in everything. They do not pay any attention to bad elements. These people turn every mistake, failure, or hurdle that they encounter into an opportunity where they can shine. They are optimistic and confident. They are sincere in their work and they exhibit cheerfulness. They are always ahead to shoulder any responsibility. They are willing to adapt and they are reliable.

Negative attitude people only see the negatives in everything including the shortcomings in people and the negative parts of a situation. They are biased towards the negative side, and they chose to ignore all positives. They are adverse to change i.e. they are reluctant to accept any and all sorts of change. This attitude may be due to their environment of upbringing and their lifestyle. Basically, they are pessimistic. They get jealous and frustrated very easily. Their mind is always full of doubt, questions, and misunderstood information. They assume that they are inferior to other people and they blame others for their own failure.

Neutral attitude is seen in those who are indifferent and detached. They don’t give any importance to any happening or situation. They lead their life by ignoring everything. These people believe that all problems are meant to be solved by someone else. They are apathetic and don’t wish to change. Neutral attitude people are known to be emotionless.

Sicken attitude type of people are those who make others feel sick. Their aura is depressing. These people are dangerous and very destructive. It is extremely difficult to change a person having sicken-type of attitude. This type of attitude has deep roots in the personality of the person. A person belonging to any of the other attitudes may get ruined if they get influenced by this category of attitude.

I feel that if you wish to succeed in life you should always have a positive attitude. 

Jeff Keller says, “Attitude is everything.”

Some others have also said, “A positive attitude is a person’s passport to a better tomorrow.”

Wikipedia states that a human being has 10 thoughts per minute. This means that there are nearly 14,000 thoughts that a person has on a daily basis and about 50 Lac thoughts that they can possibly have during the course of a year. If we consider the lifespan of a human being to be around the duration of 70 years, the person is engaged in 35 crore thoughts.

This just instils that if we can send 35 crore positive affirmations to our sub-conscious minds, I have no doubt that our perspective on life can change drastically.