"How to Develop a Positive Attitude"

In other words, our attitude encompasses both what we feel
about - as author Douglas Adams calls it - "Life, the
Universe and Everything," - as well as how we react to it
all. So, even before we begin to ask questions about how
to live a better life or how to improve our self-image or
grow more prosperous, we must examine how each of us looks
at this thing called "Our Life."

If we want to succeed, it's important to understand that
how we set our life's compass - our attitude - will
determine where we travel for the remainder of our journey.

Notice the two definitions above; the first assumes that
attitude is a function of the brain. The second portrays a
life in which the wellsprings of the mind flow into what we
do physically, in other words, our habits, speech and even
our health. Attitude is built from many materials,
beginning with our genetic dispositions. That's right, Mum
and Dad have some influence on how our brains grow and
mature as well as what kind of neuro-chemicals are mixed
together in our amazing skulls.

The problem with many self-help programs is that they are
based on the assumption that attitude is totally dependent
on will or some kind of iron discipline.

Of course, it is true that we are responsible for our
thoughts and we must choose to respond to life -there will
be more on that later.

For those who truly want to change, however, it is
important to approach our attitude from the standpoint of
understanding who we are and what genetic traits we have
inherited from our forebears. Why? Once we understand what
psychological and emotional factors we can attribute to
our relatives, we can then approach real change armed with
enough information for a reality check.

This is not an argument in favor of determinism (i.e. the
notion of "I'm the way I am because of my parents and I
can't do anything about it!").

Even if you grew up with two of the angriest parents to
ever grace human society, you can still overcome such a
temperament.

But, the important thing to understand is that you may
possess the same traits.

By acknowledging your heritage, you can move forward
knowing what pitfalls (courtesy of your genes) may await
you.. Before we use a compass on a long journey, we should
always make sure it's going to work properly.

Is it calibrated for true North? Just like a misaligned
compass, our lives can become off-center because of our
past.

Whether it's mental abuse by a loved one or a negative
attitude we absorb from popular culture, any examination of
attitude must start with introspection.

B. So, How Do You View Life?

Never had the soil of bitterness and anger been so fertile
than it was in Nazi concentration camps in World War II.

Men, women and children who were deemed undesirable by
Hitler's maniacal regime were shipped far from their homes
on railway boxcars like human livestock to compounds built
on humiliation, torture, degradation and usually death.

Starvation was the rule rather than the exception.

The few who survived physical death nevertheless left those
camps mentally scarred.

For many, the experience changed their attitude irrevocably
from happy, prosperous members of society to virtual
skeletons that gnawed on the bones of resentment and
hostility for the rest of their days.

It's certainly understandable that a person could change
their attitude on life after witnessing such human
depravity.

For Victor Frankl, however, attitude always remained a
matter of unchangeable direction- a direction that always
pointed to a bright outlook on reality and the human
condition.

A noted Austrian therapist and physician, Frankl's sedate
life crumbled one autumn day in 1942 when the SS snatched
him and his wife and parents away to the Theresienstadt
concentration camp.

Even as he endured torment after torment - watching his
parents and wife waste away and die as they were moved from
camp to camp - Frankl never lost his therapist's ability to
observe and define human behavior.

While working as a camp counselor and medical technician,
Frankl noticed that inmates tended to exhibit one of two
attitudes.

They would either give in to despair or they would choose
to live a life of meaning despite the beatings, lack of
food and outright brutality of their captors.

Frankl writes:

"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the
last of the human freedoms-to choose one's attitude in any
given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

In short, our attitude is the one thing we possess that can
never be regulated, taxed, stolen or conned from us -
unless we allow it be.

----------------------------------------------------
Bryce Roadley is an author, speaker and business mentor.
He has spent the last 27 years in business and has trained
and mentored thousands of people. He has built a number of
million dollar businesses and one multi-million dollar
business with over 70,000 distributor's, he recently sold
that business and is dedicating his life to sharing his
principles of success with people world wide.
http://www.wealthwithattitude.com