Make your attitude your greatest asset...

My wife sent me a link to a photograph of a page from John Maxwell's book, The Difference Maker: Making Attitude Your Greatest Asset.  It's worth repeating and sharing.  The passage begins with a question, "What usually separates the best from the rest?"

Denis Waitley wrote in his book The Winner's Edge, "The winner's edge is not in a gifted birth, a high IQ, or in talent.  The winner's edge is all in the attitude, not aptitude.  Attitude is the criterion for success.  But you can't buy an attitude for a million dollars.  Attitudes are not for sale."

Legendary football coach Nick Saban said that "your attitude is critical to success. Having a positive attitude can have a tremendous effect on how you react and respond to challenges, successes, and failures."  

John Maxwell wrote something similar, stating "For years I have tried to live by the following statement: I cannot always choose what happens to me, but I can always choose what happens in me.  Some things in life are beyond my control.  Some things are within it.  My attitude in the areas beyond my control can be the difference maker.  My attitude in the areas that I do control will be the difference maker.  In other words, the greatest difference my difference maker can make is within me, not others.  That is why your attitude is your greatest asset or liability.  It makes you or breaks you.  It lifts you up or brings you down.  A positive mental attitude will not let you do everything.  But it can help you do anything better than you would if your attitude were negative."

I am reminded of a post that I wrote a long time ago ("The Man Who Thinks He Can") about a poem that my parents posted on our refrigerator door when I was growing up.  The poem was written in 1905 by a man named Walter Wintle and is called "Thinking" (the poem is also known by the title, "The Man Who Thinks He Can").  Here it is again:

If you think you are beaten, you are;

If you think you dare not, you don't.

If you'd like to win, but you think you can't,

It is almost a cinch that you won't.

If you think you'll lose, you're lost;

For out of the world we find

Success begins with a fellow's will

It's all in the state of mind.

If you think you're outclassed, you are;

You've got to think high to rise.

You've got to be sure of yourself before

You can ever win the prize.

Life's battles don't always go

To the stronger or faster man;

But sooner or later the man who wins

Is the one who thinks he can!

Attitude is everything.  As John Maxwell writes, it can either be your greatest asset or your greatest liability.  The choice is up to you.