拉塞尔·康威/Russell Conwell
I was attending a seminar in Sydney in April and picked up a lecture note. In it was a reflection on "Attitude".
Let me quote the anonymous writer:
"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than fact. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, intelligence or skill. It will make or break a company, a church or a home.
"The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is to play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude.
"I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. You are in charge of your attitude."
This means that no matter what happens to you, it is how you react or respond to it that is important.
You can't control or influence certain events in life—earthquake, sabotage, terrorist bombings, being struck by lightning, a freak traffic accident and so on. But you can control how you think and feel about such incidents, even when you are the unfortunate victim of an accident.
You can choose to moan and groan about your misfortune, about what you have lost physically or financially. Or you can choose to count your blessings that you are still alive, that you have most of your physical or mental faculties. A prolonged negative attitude would make you miserable and regressive whereas a change to a positive attitude would spur you to think of possibilities.
You could be taunted or discriminated against if you lost a leg, arm or an eye. You can't help some insensitive people doing such things. If you fret over what is said and what has been deprived of you, does it make you any happier, determined, persevering or resourceful?