Inspirational Monday series: "Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs"

Responsibility Thinking

Your future is within reach when you have a firm foundation on which to build and maintain it.

Taking responsibility for your attitude is the first step.

Most people hand over the responsibility for their attitude in the following ways:

They point to personal circumstances as the reason for their attitude.

They point to other people’s actions (or inactions) as the reason for their attitude.

They point to luck (or lack of it) as the reason for their attitude.

They point to their own flaws or failures as the reason for their attitude.

They point to the world at large as the reason for their attitude. 

None of these are suitable excuses to have a poor attitude.

Sure, things happen in life you can’t control, but you must take personal responsibility.

You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.

That is something you have charge of. 

Consistent Learning

The difference between someone who has a difficult youth, a career full of failures,

and a personal life that’s in shambles versus a person who has the same difficult youth, career full of failures,

and personal life that’s in shambles but has an attitude for success to go with all that is massive.

That one ingredient—the right attitude—can make or break us.

Because the right attitude for success says, sure, we had a rough start in life,

but we aren’t going to sit around blaming others’ actions for our choices.

Instead, we’re going to start shedding old ideas and adopting new beliefs to grow beyond the painful past.

The right attitude for success says,

‘Wow, we failed a lot in our professional life but what we learned from those failures will propel us even further next time we try!’

And the right attitude for success says,

‘Relationships are hard sometimes and we all lose people we care about,

but now we can take what we’ve experienced and apply it so we’re the best versions of ourselves.’

Rather than spend idle time wondering why we have it so rough,

an attitude of success inspires us to look back only to see what lessons we can take with us as we charge into the future.

Sometimes it takes an outside perspective to help us get there, but if we end up in a positive place of gratitude,

even after difficulty, we know we have the right attitude for success. 

Your Personal Development Plan

Once you’ve stepped back from your challenges and looked at things with a new view,

you might feel like it is smooth sailing from here on out.

Well, probably not.

Every path has its highs and lows.

In fact, the most difficult thing you face might be maintaining that positive attitude.

It’s a daily discipline to keep your personal philosophy at the forefront of your mind.

Everything else in your world will battle for prominence, from the news to your complaining neighbor or colleague.

You might feel pumped up at the thought of your impending success,

but without the right attitude to keep your mindset on track, your plan is likely to fail.

You need to adopt a personal development plan that helps you on a both daily and weekly basis.

Reading, writing, talking with other success-minded folks, and learning from a mentor are all part of a solid personal development plan.

The idea is to control what your mind dwells on and how you see the world.

If you leave this vital component of your life to anyone else—whether that’s your boss or the local news anchor—

you’re likely to be disappointed.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan.

And guess what they have planned for you?

Not much.

If you want to make minor changes in your life, work on your behavior.

If you want significant, quantum breakthroughs, work on your paradigms.