Your attitude can be your greatest asset or your worst liability.  It can be a great asset because it can sustain you when things aren’t going well.  It can cause you to lift yourself up and those around you when things seem to be negative.  Attitude can keep you going when you want to give up.  It can increase your influence as it grows your like-ability factor.

But attitude can also be a liability that can cost you.  It can cost you relationships.  It can cost you a job.  A bad attitude can get you into serious trouble.  It can cause people to build up walls around you in fear of the way you might act.

Attitude determines a lot about someone’s life.  Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.  Show me someone who consistently has a bad attitude and I will show you someone who will always have a hard time in life.  They will always face “issues” that will challenge them.  But show me someone who has a great attitude and I will show you someone who is going somewhere.  They will increase in their success in life.  I have never met someone who loves what they do, finds purpose in what they do, and is growing in their success have a bad attitude.  However, I have met hundreds of people who hate what they do, feel purposeless, and are apathetic that have bad attitudes.  You could argue that because they are purposeless and apathetic that is why they have a bad attitude.  But I don’t buy that circumstances determine your attitude, I believe your attitude determines your circumstances.   Attitude precedes action.  Whatever attitude you have will determine what you do.  If you are having a negative attitude then you will not perform at your highest level.  Your attitude precedes your action.  But if you have a winning attitude you will act out on that belief and give it your all.  People are not a product of their environment they are a product of their attitude.  What is in you will come out of you.  One of my favorite John Wooden quotes is…

 “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out.”  

So how do you have a great attitude? When I was young and having a bad attitude I remember my parents telling me I needed an attitude adjustment.  So here are some tips I have learned to help adjust attitudes…

1. Focus on what you DO have not what you DON’T have

Too many people overlook their blessings only to see their faults.  Why focus on your weaknesses when you can focus on your strengths.  Don’t waste your time angry about what you don’t have, spend your time being grateful for what you do have.  Poverty is an attitude not a bank account.  Poverty is believing and acting as if you have nothing.  Poverty focuses on what you don’t have, wealth is about focusing on what you do have.  The richest people on earth don’t always have lots of money, because being rich is an attitude of abundance not scarcity.

2. SERVE the needs of others

Selfishness breeds bad attitudes.  It breeds greed, pride, ego, jealousy, and anger.  However, when you step out and serve others you keep your attitude in check.  When life becomes about helping others succeed you will find success.  Nothing kills an attitude faster than being self-centered.  Serving others gives room for blessings and joy to fill our life.  To keep your attitude in the right place serve others and lift them to a higher level.

Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can,

at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” 

– John Wesley ~

3. Find PURPOSE in what you do

In my book, “The Worship Revolution” I talk about finding purpose in what you do, here is what I wrote…

Christopher Wren, one of the greatest architects in London, was commissioned to build Saint Paul’s Cathedral after the great fire of 1666. In 1671, while observing 3 brick layers working on a scaffold, Wren asked, 

“What are you doing?” 

The first man that was crouched down replied, 

“Making a living.” 

The second man who was half way standing said, 

“Building a wall.” 

The third man who was working hard and fast said,

 “Building a cathedral for the Almighty.”  

You see, how you view what you do for a living makes a huge difference. You can choose to simply get a paycheck to help make ends meet, or you can choose to let your work be your worship and purpose. A person with purpose is the most effective and productive person there is.

Never lose your purpose.  Having a positive attitude in life happens when you live life on purpose with a purpose.  Don’t get in the rut of just going through the motions, find your WHY in life.  When you find your WHY you find your WAY.  When you lose your WHY you lose your WAY.  The key to a great attitude is having a great purpose.  Know that you matter and what you do matters no matter how much you think you matter.