Choosing Our Attitude

I was recently reminded again of the importance of choosing my attitude.  There are so many things in life that we have absolutely no control over, but we can always choose how we respond.

Attitude makes all the difference.  Chuck Swindoll, a well-known author and pastor, has a quote about attitude that pretty much sums it up (you may be familiar with this):

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life.

Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, 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 every day 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 string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.

And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.

There were certainly days when I was on 5&1 when I wasn't particularly having fun.  I got tired of the food (and without crunch bars, pretzels, cheese bites, soft serve, pancakes, sloppy joe mix or brownies there was less variety then) and I got tired of having to pass up some of my favorite foods.  What I quickly realized was the fact that nobody was making me do this - I had the freedom to quit anytime I wanted to.  It was my choice to do the plan or not, and it was also my choice to either do it with joy or be miserable the whole time (and make everyone around me miserable, too). 

Part of choosing our attitude is choosing what we're going to focus on.  If we're focused on what we're giving up, if we allow ourselves to live in the land of the deprived, we're more likely to struggle with our attitude.  On the other hand, if we shift our focus from what we're temporarily giving up to all that we are gaining - improved health, smaller sizes, better self-esteem, etc. etc., maintaining a positive attitude becomes much easier.  A woman I know summed up her own way of choosing her attitude, saying she could either "practice the presence of problems or practice the presence of Jesus."  I like that!

The challenges we face may remain the same, the problems may still be there, and we may still be facing many more days, weeks or months of being on 5&1.   We may or may not be able to change the situation, but we can always choose our attitude - choose wisely :-)