Balancing Attitude and Reality

Maintaining a positive attitude in life.

Every event in our lives can leave us with great joy or hopelessness. The events may or may not be directly related to us. At the moment everyone is predicting how there are bad financial times ahead due to the financial crisis in America. All we hear is there are tuff times ahead. These sentiments, as much as they may be true have the power to make us live in great negativity. As the analysts go through the reports, they never give us a chance to look at the brighter side of the whole bad event. It is unfortunate that there are more negative thoughts/people around us than there are positive and the few positive do not seem to exert their authority anymore.

To help us in our daily projections it is relevant if we consider the biblical verse that encourages us not to worry about tomorrow for today has enough troubles. This implies that each morning, God gives us a limited amount of energy to spend in that given day. He gave children of Israel manna enough for each day only. If we spend too much on unwarranted needs, we begin to run on stress and that's when bad things happen. Therefore, we need to keep our supply of emotional, mental and physical energy at appropriate levels. It is our duty to get enough sleep, exercise, and right food so that we replenish our bodies. And we need to laugh often, take breaks, get away, not try to be super people, understand we can't please everyone, watch out for our perfectionist tendencies–all those things are important to keeping the bank account of energy re-supplied.

On a typical day you leave home/hostel in a good mood, assuming you woke up at the right time and so had enough time to prepare well, but before you get to town where you have an appointment, there's a traffic problem or the driver in front of you is very slow or the matatu takes too long to be full or something just happens along the way. So, the blood pressure starts rising and you're spending emotional energy. You are worried that you will be late. As you get to your destination, the phone is ringing and you have to deal with an angry or desperate caller or are reminded of an assignment you haven't finished that is due that morning. You spend some more emotional energy. About mid-morning may be the computer you are using in a cyber café or workplace or in campus computer lab goes down, then you realize that work/assignment you haven't completed and you're already behind schedule, a co-worker/roommate/relative irritates you and causes you problems, you get a headache at noon, and the day goes downhill from there. You're emotionally broke by noon; the account is empty because you've spent all your emotional money on those little things. You feel as though everyone is out to get you into trouble.

This illustration points out how significant it is for us to consider how we spend our emotional energy. Consider the difference your decision or emotions are going to make in the next 24 hours. Throughout your day make yourself more aware of how you're spending that emotional energy, and keep asking, "Is it worth it?" And by God's grace with his wisdom, you will learn to be much more frugal in the way you spend your energy. We should refrain from allowing short term events determine the decisions that will affect our long term future.

I also wish to suggest that you respond to the negatives with a positive. If you have people who gripe about the job, you could point out to them, "Well, I guess there are some unemployed people out there who'd love to have our job." Say it nicely, quietly, but don't be afraid to be positive with those negative people. We allow them to intimidate us too easily. They may not like your positive response, but as long as you do it in a nice way, please don't let that stop you. You must protect your mind from their negativism, or they'll poison your thinking.

Now that we realize that there are so many negative events around us daily how then can we stay positive in this negative world? We all choose the attitude we maintain in any situation. No matter how difficult it may be to stay positive on a given day, it's still easier than being negative. When you and I choose to be negative, we are choosing the hard way. Being positive is the easy way out. Some of us choose to be negative saying that if the bad thing we fear comes true, then we won't be greatly disappointed. As such when things don't seem to work, they will say that it has always been this way for them.

I want to encourage you to really get serious about developing and maintaining a positive attitude. God created us in His image and likeness, and we have every reason to be optimistic having understood who He is and the plans He has for us. And we should demonstrate that to our worlds by maintaining a positive attitude, regardless of our circumstances. I hope you'll be willing to start that process today, and continue it for the rest of your life.

Having said this, I need also caution you against careless optimism. You may have been told that "attitude is everything". While there's no doubt about the power of a positive outlook, as I have illustrated above, attitude alone won't make you achieve your goals. By itself, attitude is unable to resurrect a doomed business plan or make up for a deficiency of knowledge. Attitude can't alter reality or reverse a dire financial or physical situation.

The "attitude is everything" doctrine becomes particularly dangerous when a person lives on hope rather than paying his or her dues for success. The mindset, "All things work together for the good," substitutes for planning and effort. As a friend once commented to me, most of us fail to achieve our potential because of poor planning in the name of having faith in God's plan for our lives. Attitude has undeniable benefit, but it's not a magic ticket that compensates for failure to perform. You cannot disconnect attitude from reality and expect to be successful. As we maintain this positive attitude we need also to face reality and take appropriate actions to avert disaster. The same God who requires our total dependence on Him has also given us the ability to plan for the events around us by giving us knowledge wisdom and power to have dominion over everything He created.

Let us not avoid developing our skills and talent and focus on attitude. You need to learn to be competent in your duties even as you maintain that positive attitude. If you maintain a positive attitude at the job interview, you definitely might get hired but before long, if you are not competent for the job, you soon will be fired. Maintain a positive attitude but seek out to improve yourself.

At the same time you need to realize that it will take time and diverse experiences for us to get to the top. In our youthful ambitions, things seem to be too slow. We seek to create impact, to be recognized. When we fail we are encouraged to remain hopeful never being reminded that they are those mishaps that will help us attain our potential. Maintain a positive attitude but allow the experiences to mould you character.

As John Adams said, "Facts are stubborn things." They may be painful to accept, but they cannot be ignored. Attitude alone cannot reverse financial numbers showing a company on the verge of bankruptcy. The reality for many companies involves difficult decisions like outsourcing or layoffs to cut costs.

By itself, attitude cannot stem the tide of an evolving industry. For instance, newspapers must adjust their advertising strategies to confront the fact that consumers are flocking online for news. Without a fundamental shift in their business models, traditional newspapers face extinction-regardless of the attitudes permeating their company cultures.

Attitude fills us with hope that we might reach our dreams. However, hope divorced from action proves false. In the words of musician, Bruce Springsteen, "A time comes when you need to stop waiting for the man you want to become and start being the man you want to be." Never stop dreaming, but also never cease growing if you expect your dreams to come true.

In conclusion, the truth is that a positive attitude will make great difference in our lives. It the expectations we have of ourselves or the expectations we allow others to impose on us that greatly determine our performance in academic, professional or social lives. If you expect to win or succeed in whatever you are doing, you must be able to visualize the expected success. Maintaining a positive attitude will greatly help us relate well others. It will help us face challenges with optimism and courage.

We however need to be cautious and be real with ourselves as we remain positive at all times.