Part 3 – Success – a State of Mind

“Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.” – W. W. Ziege

Your mental attitude has a decisive impact on your performance in life.  It creates the conditions under which your thought processes takes place. It therefore has a huge impact on the perceptions you hold and the kind of the decisions you will habitually make. Your mental attitude therefore lies at the root of the quality of the life that you produce through the decisions you make and the actions you subsequently take.

People who are in the habit of having a positive take on life, will typically tend to seek solutions, recognise opportunities or influence their environment thus creating an upbeat atmosphere. They are in the habit of having a Positive Mental Attitude (PMA). They approach opportunities with a can-do attitude and are motivated into action with a high expectation of success.

Cynics on the other hand are so preoccupied with the downside of every situation that their minds never get to resolving problems, recognising opportunities or even having the ability to initiate a pleasant atmosphere. They will typically approach every situation with a pessimistic outlook and habitually embark upon a new venture with an attitude of self doubt, assuming failure even before they are presented with life’s obstacles. In so doing they close down windows of opportunities even before they had the chance to recognise them. Through this overall Negative Mental Attitude (NMA), they sabotage their own prospect of success. They approach opportunities with an unwillingness to act, a diluted effort filled with self doubt and obscured with fear resulting in a high expectation of failure.

A Negative Mental Attitude is recognisable by a predominant sense of depression, low self esteem, and a general tendency towards seeing problems and always offering excuses. This trend will forever keep on producing poor results and such a person will remain an under performer.

A Positive Mental Attitude on the other hand manifests itself in the form of a healthy self esteem, loads of confidence, insisting on finding solutions to any problem or obstacles and a willingness to take ownership for their lives.  Your tendency towards being successful will improve in direct relation to your ability to develop and maintain a Positive Mental Attitude.

In order to achieve this, make a commitment towards

1. Eradicating a Negative Mental Attitude:

• Be careful not to dwell on negative thoughts, forever seeking excuses or harbouring anger or resentment. This is poison to your mind.
• Do not undermine your own self esteem through self-pity or being judgemental towards yourself to the point where you don’t recognise or celebrate your own achievements.
• Don’t waste your life on pessimistic friends or “Sorry Sallys”. They will drain the life out of you. “Fire” them, even if they are family.

1. Build up your Positive Mental Attitude:

• Surround yourself with positive people and keep the company of the likes you idolize as role models or mentors.
• Watch your self-talk and make a commitment towards inspiring yourself.
• Be confident and decisive in your thinking.

1. Establish winning habits like Accurate thinking, Self assessment,  Day-end-reflection, to name but a few.

Your life has a tendency towards turning into reality your dominant thoughts. Your inclination towards being successful depends on your commitment towards cleaning up your thinking, staying positive and developing a Positive Mental Attitude.

A person suffering from NMA will look at life’s opportunities and pass them up because of the problems they might present. A person with a PMA will look at life’s problems and cash in on them because of the opportunities they present.

Once you have developed good habits that will produce and sustain a Positive Mental Attitude, you will be in a better position to recognise and make use of opportunities. You have set the stage for success. Go and do life.