Success or Failure Depends More – Daily Meditation 11.15.23

Today’s quotation:

Success or failure depends more upon attitude than upon capacity.  Successful people act as though they have accomplished or are enjoying something.  Soon, it becomes a reality. Act, look, feel successful, and conduct yourself accordingly, and you will be amazed at the positive results.-
Dupree Jordan

Today’s Meditation:

Sometimes, it’s hard to remember how much our attitudes affect our lives.  It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that our attitudes result from what happens to us in life, but the truth is that, just as often as not, what happens to us in life is the result of our attitudes.  If we have an attitude of failure and think there’s no way we can succeed, guess what?  Most of the time, that attitude will cause us to fail.

It is incredible to see how a shift in our attitudes about almost anything can lead to fundamental changes in how our lives turn out.  In my life, shifts in how I saw relationships have led to much better relationships; shifts in how I view money have led to much more financial success than ever.  I no longer hope against hope that things will work out–now I approach everything sure that I’m going to succeed, and while there are hiccups and obstacles from time to time, it’s utterly true that things do work out.

What does this mean, though, in practical terms?  To me, it means that if we want to succeed in something, we first need to make sure that we have a positive attitude about the outcome of our efforts.  We can’t just cross our fingers and hope when we start something new–we have to have confidence that things will work out, for that confidence will be part of why they work out.  It’s nothing magical or new age or anything like that–it’s simply one of the ways that life works.  Our attitude and confidence go a very long way toward determining outcomes.

Of course, changing our attitudes isn’t the easiest thing in life.  We can’t just decide one day to outgrow or change beliefs and attitudes that have been a part of who we are for decades–it takes some work and dedication to make the changes happen.  But it is possible to change our attitudes, and one of the best things we can do for ourselves is to work on doing just that so that we can start to experience success in areas that have just led to undesired results and frustration.  Let’s work to make that change to see so many other changes happen.

Questions to consider:

Where do most of our attitudes come from?  Are they generally accurate?

Why do so many people adopt and exercise destructive attitudes toward themselves (and others in their lives)?

How might you go about actually changing an attitude?

For further thought:

Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. How you think about a fact may defeat you before you ever do anything about it.  You are overcome by the fact because you think you are. -Norman Vincent Peale