Our General Manager, Terry Fahy, told us that our attitude towards anything, our jobs as well as our lives, can determine how we handle challenges that come at us. Here are some things that we should NOT do when tough times occur:
1. Don’t put your head in the sand and act like everything is fine. Instead: DEFINE THE DIFFICULTY. Avoid superlatives like “everything is bad” or “no one is interested in what I have to offer.” I like to write down exactly what my problem is and get it out of my head and onto a piece of paper. This brings clarity. Usually the problem isn’t as big as it FEELS.
2. Don’t whine. Whining accomplishes nothing but makes you feel worse than you did before you started whining. Instead: GIVE THANKS. Give thanks for all the blessings in your life. As tough as your challenges may be, they could be a lot worse. Cindy and I have received a real education on this with her work with Joni and Friends, the disability organization. Cindy’s motto has become: I have no problems. So what’s my problem? Instead: Do something. Do something positive for yourself (like exercise) or do something for others. It will make you feel better.
3. Don’t blame others, like your parents or the government or the economy or fill in the blank. Instead: TAKE RESPONSIBILITY for what you can do to overcome your difficulty.
4. Most importantly, don’t lose hope. Instead: TRUST. Trust in God and in the abilities He has given you to be an overcomer. The greatest obstacle you face is not your aptitude or ability. Your greatest obstacle is your attitude. As John Maxwell says: Your attitude determines your altitude.
Also, Terry shared with us a message from Chuck Swindoll and his thoughts on what attitudes can do to build us up or break us down:
Words can never adequately convey the incredible impact of our attitude toward life.
Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll; it’s more important than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill.
It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... 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 play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude.
Attitude keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right: there’s no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me.
The longer I live, the more convinced I have become that life is 10 percent what happens to us and 90 percent how we respond to it.
