3 Steps To Your Best Attitude

By Rich Vosler

Two summers ago my then 8-year-old daughter Sarah was away at camp and was bit by a deer tick. As a result she contracted Lyme Disease. She also experienced severe paralysis on the left side of her face as a side effect, commonly known as Bells Palsy. The condition usually remedies itself but Sarah's took a very long time. Even now, 18 months later, she still has some paralysis and our neurologist is not sure if it will ever be completely healed. Her Lyme Disease was treated successfully with antibiotics.

Several weeks after she got the Palsy and her Lyme Disease treatments were completed, her and I were talking and having fun. We were poking fun at each other and having a really good time. She would laugh and smile her half smile at me and it touched my heart. I said to her, "Just think Sarah, in a few months your smile will be back to normal!" She looked at me confused, and said, "Oh, you mean I'm not going to be like this forever?" I was floored. I couldn't believe that she had accepted that she was never going to get her full smile back but she was content and happy and had a great attitude regardless. I firmly believe that children are given to us as OUR teachers even though we mostly think that we are their teachers.

Sarah gave me the gift of attitude that day. I know how important attitude is but this incident gave me insight on a whole different level. Here are some things you can do right now to get the kind of attitude that will propel you toward your goals:

--Learn To Be Thankful For What You Already Have
One of the best ways to be thankful for what you already have is to start keeping a Gratitude Journal. This is a simple notebook or journal where you spend time daily or several times a week writing down what you're thankful for. If you've never tried it, give it a shot. You'll be shocked at what you are really thankful for. You'll find that little things will bring the most gratitude - a hug, smile or facial expression from one of your children. Or your dog's wonderful attitude (that's a whole separate article!). Or the way your spouse leans their head on your shoulder as you sit together. A journal like this allows you to really appreciate the little things that, in our busyness, we overlook. Resolve that going forward you're not going to let these gems of time slip away unnoticed. Resolve now to spend time remembering them, appreciating them and giving thanks for them. When you know what's important to you and you're thankful for them, you become happier.

--Stop Wasting Idle Time Doing Unimportant Things
This one is a favorite of mine, one that I still struggle with. For some reason, we use this one to avoid what we know we should be doing. And let me clarify what we should be doing. In his excellent book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" Dr. Stephen Covey talks about urgent vs. important things. Urgent things are usually things that are important to others but they need our involvement to complete them and they expect us to make them urgent too. You should never let other people's priorities become your emergencies. You have important things to be done as well. Things like goal setting, dream building and relationships. When we let unimportant urgencies dominate our time we never have time for the important things that really make the difference in our quality of life. Doing the important things in life create in us a great attitude because we know that we're doing what we should be.

--Start Worrying Less And Enjoying Life More
In his "Little Red Book of Selling" Jeffrey Gitomer says, "Resign your position as general manger of the universe. The less time you spend in other people's business, other people's problems, and other people's drama, the more time you'll have for your own success." How true is that?
Especially as salespeople we think we have to fix everything from manufacturing and processing problems to our customer's personal problems. Forget that and start working on yourself. That's the only thing you can affect. This gives you more time to enjoy your life and what you've already accomplished. If you have children, nothing in life will even come close to the love and gratification you get from watching and being with them. We spend all this time chasing other things looking for that certain "something" that's going to make all the difference. If you have children, you already have it. You just haven't realized it or spend enough time with them to realize it. When you continually work on yourself, you improve your attitude because you're making progress in your life.

These are just a sampling of the things that you can do to improve your attitude but I think they are foundational. Getting back in touch with what's important to us aligns us with what's right with the world. I love this quote from author Jack Anthony, "I have never been a millionaire. But I have enjoyed a crackling fire, a glorious sunset, a walk with a friend and a hug from a child. There are plenty of life's tiny delights for all of us." When you're focused on what's important, your life can only improve. I know you can do it and I definitely believe in you!

Rich Vosler is a Sales Success Coach who coaches clients in groups or individually. He was a mortgage professional for 18 years in New York, New Jersey and Georgia. He is also a speaker and author. Rich can be reached at 609-790-8757 or by email at rvosler@verizon.net His website, Sales Training & Motivation, is at http://www.RichVosler.com and is full of sales success tips as well as his brand new blog. He is also running a special on his brand new DVD, Secrets of Sales Power sold there. Call today!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rich_Vosler

How Our Attitudes Affect Our Health

By Gary M. Miller

We do several things to protect our health, such as eating right, exercising, dressing warm in cold weather, taking vitamins, practicing good hygiene and avoiding people who have contagious illnesses, such as the flu or colds. After taking all those precautions, many people still jeopardize their health simply by having poor attitudes.

Attitude affects every aspect of our lives - for better or worse - including our overall health. The mind is incredibly powerful. Have you ever heard the expression 'I think, therefore I am'? Well, that probably means that you exist, because you think - but you should learn to look at it from a different point of view 'I think I am well, therefore I am.'

Some people look for things to be wrong with them. Some might call them hypochondriacs, but mostly, they just always expect the worst - even from their own bodies. This mindset can actually cause illness. This has been proven in scientific experiments where people who believe they are ill are given drugs to treat the 'illness' that are not actually drugs at all - they are basically sugar pills. But the person, believing they were being treated with medication for their illness, recovered, and no longer felt ill.

Alternately, people who really are ill have found that they heal faster when they stay in a positive frame of mind. This positive mindset allows them to follow their doctor's orders easier, and expect good things to come from the treatment. They look forward to the things they will do once they are well - and in most cases the mind, in its own mysterious way, takes those thoughts and helps the body heal faster.

A positive attitude helps prevent specific health problems as well, such as migraine headaches, stomach ulcers, heart problems, and muscle aches. This is because when a person has a positive attitude, they have considerably reduced stress levels. Stress can cause headaches, stomach ulcers, heart problems, muscle aches, and a variety of other health problems. By reducing stress, you reduce the potential for these health problems.

A positive attitude does not guarantee that you will never have a health problem, it just reduces the possibility, and then it works in your favor to overcome any health problems that you do experience.

Gary Miller is the author of "Do not Knock on Wood": How to break Free from the Grips of Negative Thinking." To learn more about the book click here to go to the website at http://www.positivethinkingnow.com.

Gary Miller was the World's Leading expert on Negative Thinking until he lost approximately $3 Million Dollars because of a lifetime of negative thinking. To learn more about his Journey to a Positive Thinking Recovery and weekly FREE Positive Thinking techniques, you can visit his web site at: http://www.positivethinkingnow.com

Gratitude Attitude vs Entitlement

By Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD

Several of my readers have asked me if the hoopla about expressing gratitude—saying, thanks to everything in our life—is all what it is touted to be. It is important to question the latest buzz phrase or tagline. Many people, who followed the latest fad, discovered they were being duped by its originator.

American society has become a society of entitlement. The entitlement attitude says, "life owes me something," "people owe me something," "the government owes me something," or "God owes me something."

First allow me to give some history as to how American society became a society of entitlement.
Beginning with the New Deal program, Franklin D. Roosevelt initiated between 1933 and 1938 with the goal of providing relief, recovery, and reform to the people and economy of the United States during the Great Depression people have become indoctrinated to an entitlement attitude. Following the New Deal, dozens of agencies were created, which introduced class conflict, especially between business and unions. New Deal programs still in existence today are Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the primary regulator of Wall Street. Source: Allswang, John. The New Deal and American Politics (1978), voting analysis.

You can quickly and easily determine if you are in entitlement attitude, because the result you experience leaves you constantly feeling angry, resentful, or frustrated. If you believe that someone owes you something and that person does not come through, you feel angry. You resent being ripped-off and cheated out of something you think you deserve. However, that is what people with an entitlement attitude expect and demand.

Entitlement is a lie. It is a perversion of reality—as much as the government programs beginning with the New Deal is a perversion of reality. In truth the government can not provide enough programs or possibly meet all the demands of all the people all the time.

Expressing gratitude for everything in our lives, including, the things that we would prefer to have been different, is powerful and empowering. Expressing gratitude is within the Law of Cause and Effect. The Law of Cause and Effect embodies the truth that Law pervades the Universe; that nothing happens by Chance, that Chance is simply a term indicating cause existing, but not recognized or perceived, that phenomena is continuous and without fail or exception.

The Principle of Cause and Effect underlies all scientific thought, ancient and modern, and was enunciated by the Essenic Teachers in the earliest days. The universal laws are based on metaphysics and have been spoken of by the greatest thinkers, writers and leaders throughout time—Plato, Aristotle, Albert Einstein, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Dale Carnegie, The Power of Positive Thinking, Carl Jung; “What you resist persists.” Buddha, “All that we are is a result of what we have thought.”

If one authentically expresses gratitude without skepticism, it is awesomely life altering. When one is grateful for everything in their life--the good, the bad, the ugly, they are in charge of their life and therefore, can change the bad, the ugly and enjoy the good more. If we 'hate,' 'reject,' 'deny,' or 'pretend,' the bad and the ugly has nothing to do with oneself, one is dis-empowered and helpless. When we take responsibility for everything we experience--the good, the bad, and the ugly, we are empowered and powerful to effect change. We can not change that which we do not acknowledge. Expressing gratitude for the good, the bad or the ugly, is acknowledging what we have created (casued), therefore we can do something about it, if we so choose. Without acknowledgement we have NO choice.

Dorothy M. Neddermeyer, PhD, Life Coach, Hypnotherapist, Author, "101 Great Ways To Improve Your Life." Dr. Dorothy has the unique gift of connecting people with a broad range of profound principles that resonate in the deepest part of their being. She brings awareness to concepts not typically obvious to one's daily thoughts and feelings. http://www.drdorothy.net