POSITIVE ATTITUDES THAT BRING ABOUT SUCCESS

Success is all about happiness and fulfilment, reaching your highest point and being satisfied with what you have achieved. It's about being the best you can possibly be at any given time and making the most of opportunities--and even mishaps--that come your way.

A person's level of success--or failure--in life hugely depends on what goals and targets such a person has set for himself and more importantly, how far he is willing to go in pursuit of happiness. Goal actualization often times call for proactive action, sacrifice and dedication.

Now, the greatest influence on how you go about achieving your goals and how much sacrifice you're willing to put in is your attitude. Negative attitudes lead to certain failure while positive attitudes bring about success. It's that simple. Without positive attitudes, you could labour all you want, immerse yourself in exotic fantasies and reveries, have the wildest ambitions, conjure up the smartest ideas, and still end up achieving nothing. Hence, the importance of positive attitude in your quest for success cannot be over-emphasized. No wonder it is often said that a person's attitude ultimately determines their altitude.

What if you were born without any positive attitudes? Does that mean you have to fail?

No, it doesn't. The fact is that no one's born with a complete suite of attitudes required to succeed. Everyone has got something, yes, but definitely not all of it. It's up to you to discover what you have and learn to develop the others that you need. You've got as much a chance at success as the greatest and smallest of men.

So, what are some of the positive attitudes that bring about success?

•Well, first on the list, and rightly so, is positive thinking. No one ever got anywhere without positive thinking. You've got to understand that there is a direct correlation between thoughts and actions, this being because whatever actions and behaviours we exhibit are true reflections of what we think in our hearts. Sure you must have heard people say things like: "I wasn't thinking when I did it" or "I wasn't really sure what I was doing", but these statements are far from the truth. Every single action we carry out must have been conjured up and considered in our minds one way or another. If we do not have to think before we act, there would be no difference between us and the animals (the very low animals that is).

Knowing this, it becomes expedient for one to guard his heart and his thoughts jealously, as whatever kind of thoughts we entertain has a direct bearing on the actions--or lack of actions--that come afterward. One who wants success must fend off negative thoughts and develop the habit of thinking positively (seeing the good in every situation), even in times of thick difficulties.

•One of the greatest benefits you could ever get from thinking positively is that you attain a state of perpetual optimism. The state of the world today--economically, politically, and otherwise--favours pessimism, and pessimism in turn encourages failure. Optimism is being constantly hopeful and certain that the road (of success) that you presently tread would straighten itself out no matter how crooked it may seem at the moment. Optimism is about seeing the glass as half full.

When you're optimistic, you are not unnecessarily weighed down by obstacles and negative advice from peers and the media. Trust me; there is a lot of negative advice going around, which, if one seriously considers, one might decide that their goals are not worth it after all. I mean, who wants to labour and labour and come up empty? But the danger there is that when you're pessimistic you may become resigned not to put in any efforts to achieve your goals in the first place; and if you do not try, how can you be so certain you'd come up empty? Hence the importance of optimism.

Optimistic people are not afraid to try, to dare the seemingly impossible, to give their all to achieve success. And you can only achieve success if you try.

•In addition to the above it is also important that you have confidence in your abilities. You might think positively (see the good in every situation), be optimistic (have faith that your goals are achievable), but if you do not believe in yourself and in your ability to reach your destination, you're getting nowhere.

The truth is that the human mind is so powerful that virtually everyone can achieve almost anything they set their minds to. Time taken by different people to reach a certain goal may differ, but the bottom line is that (almost) all goals are achievable if you set your mind to it. Do not second-guess yourself, just set your goals and have confidence in your ability to see it through. This exponentially increases your chances at success.

•With all the positive attitudes treated here, it is sincerely hoped that our quest for success would be much more meaningful. But please, whatever you do, never ignore the power of persistence.

No one ever achieved success on their first try, no matter how confident or well-equipped they are. All great men tried, failed and tried again--as many times as it took to get to their destination. Do not expect that your case would be any different. It may, but don't count on it. Be ready to persevere. Failure only exists when one stops to try again; which by implication means that as long as you are persistent, you can never fail.