Attitude is Everything by Jim Rohn

The process of human change begins within us. We all have tremendous potential. We all
desire good results from our efforts. Most of us are willing to work hard and to pay the
price that success and happiness demand.

Each of us has the ability to put our unique human potential into action and to acquire a
desired result. But the one thing that determines the level of our potential, that produces
the intensity of our activity, and that predicts the quality of the result we receive is our
attitude.

Attitude determines how much of the future we are allowed to see. It decides the size of
our dreams and influences our determination when we are faced with new challenges. No
other person on earth has dominion over our attitude. People can affect our attitude by
teaching us poor thinking habits or unintentionally misinforming us or providing us with
negative sources of influence, but no one can control our attitude unless we voluntarily
surrender that control.

No one else "makes us angry." We make ourselves angry when we surrender control of
our attitude. What someone else may have done is irrelevant. We choose, not they. They
merely put our attitude to a test. If we select a volatile attitude by becoming hostile,
angry, jealous or suspicious, then we have failed the test. If we condemn ourselves by
believing that we are unworthy, then again, we have failed the test.
If we care at all about ourselves, then we must accept full responsibility for our own
feelings. We must learn to guard against those feelings that have the capacity to lead our
attitude down the wrong path and to strengthen those feelings that can lead us confidently
into a better future.

If we want to receive the rewards the future holds in trust for us, then we must exercise
the most important choice given to us as members of the human race by maintaining total
dominion over our attitude.

Our attitude is an asset, a treasure of great value, which must be protected accordingly.
Beware of the vandals and thieves among us who would injure our positive attitude or
seek to steal it away.

Having the right attitude is one of the basics that success requires.
The combination of a sound personal philosophy and a positive attitude about ourselves
and the world around us gives us an inner strength and a firm resolve that influences all
the other areas of our existence.