Facing the New Year With a Fresh Attitude!

Ever heard it said that attitude is everything?

Well it's true!

A positive attitude is essential for progress in any activity, pursuit, or for your speedy healing after an illness.

Wordnet Princeton Dictionary describes attitude as a complex mental state involving beliefs and feelings and values and dispositions (tendencies) to act in certain ways.

Hmmhh...

This simply means that how we approach life (our reaction to it's victories, defeats and challenges) is a direct reflection of our views about ourselves, others and the world around us.

Let's face it, some of us have attitudes that need some adjusting.

Our outlook on life isn't always positive and this affects our relationships with ourselves and with others.

For example, a negative attitude towards ourselves may result in:

1. Self-doubt. Where we doubt that we are worthy of the great things that life has to offer (love, friendship, the ability to overcome difficult childhoods and have success in every area of our lives)


2. Self-hatred. Where we hate who we are, because we perceive others to be better than us due to them being prettier, more popular, richer (money-wise), etc.


3. Self-abuse. Where we take our health for granted and/or attract and keep people in our lives who are a drain on our mental, emotional or physical health

While a negative attitude towards others may result in:

1. Us envying others. (Due to the negative perception/thoughts about ourselves given in points 1-3 above)


2. Us abusing others. [Due to the perception that the only way for us to be successful/(on top) is to be mercilessly cruel towards another human being]
   


3. Us not listening to the needs of others and insisting that we already know what the other person is about to say, so we  needn't develop the art of listening


4. Us not responding to the needs of others, even when they have voiced what they need


5. Us spurning people from being around us, due to our negative vibe. (Most healthy people do not like to be around negative people)


6. Us being self-centred and selfish in our relationships. (So much so that these are pursued in light of what we can get out of the other person, versus what we can give to enhance the other person's well-being and the well-being of the relationship, on a whole.)

So how about some New Year's Resolutions to change our attitude?

Firstly, towards ourselves:

How about rethinking how we feel about ourselves, so that our attitudes towards ourselves will change?

• How about us learning to love ourselves a lot more, despite our faults and weaknesses? (By  understanding that we will have faults, but as long as we're obedient to what God wants in and from our lives and are working at eliminating/decreasing these faults in becoming the persons God want us to be, then we're ok with God? (Once we're ok with God, then we're truly ok :))


• How about us finding what we are good at (our strengths) and developing ourselves (via further education and training), based on these strengths?


• Being so focused on self-development, that self-doubt and self-hatred has less of a hold on us

Then, towards others:

With our newly-found self-love:

• Instead of envying others, find out what caused their success and learn from these experiences


• Instead of abusing and tearing people down, encourage them to be the best people they can be and enjoying their successes


• Us listening more to others, by being active listeners (e.g. by looking at people while they're talking and giving them our full attention) and us talking less


• Us being more in touch with the needs of others and trying (with what is reasonable) to meet those needs? (This should vary depending on the closeness of these persons to us)

So there you have it, a few suggestions re how we can change our attitude for the New Year...

What do you think...are these resolutions, reasonable?

Do you think they can be achieved within the year?

We would love to hear what you think. (Just press the Comment link below this post and have your say!)

Gillian