Change your Attitude, Change your World (Part 1)

I have recently been considering the value of a positive attitude in our daily lives, was inspired by a moment of realization, and took my thoughts and condensed them fit the 140 character twitter model.

"Life is relative, your attitude toward your perspective defines your perceived reality.  Change your attitude, change your world."  

But then I thought about it some more, wanted to take it further, and this post was born.   The crux of my meaning is simply this: We have complete control of how we choose to look at a given situation.  Whether it is a situation at home, or a situation on the world stage, we still choose.   We usually don't recognize it as a conscious choice, but it is.

That is the basis of my tweet, and serves as a solid thesis statement for this series of posts.

Part I:  Change Yourself

Focus on the dot, the box will move
revealing different perspectives.

I have seen this life from a few different vantage points. I spent a significant amount of my adolescence learning how to live.  I made a lot of mistakes, but in return I learned a lot.   However, it was when I became determined to make a major change, and shift my life, that I discovered the true power of one's attitude.

I had reached a deep low, one so deep that I had no desire to continue living.  I was sick.  I had just been diagnosed with Graves Disease, and I felt as though life had no meaning or purpose.   I didn't value my life. I didn't value my friends. I didn't value my family.  I could have easily continued down the 'path of least resistance', and in all likelihood I wouldn't be here to share my story today.

One morning, I awakened and told myself, "I have to change [my life], I can't keep going on this way".  A simple statement, one that is so often made in vain.  In fact, I had said those same words many times before.  However, something was different this time - I meant it from a deeper part of my core. In retrospect, I recognize that as the exact moment when my attitude shifted.   Suddenly, I didn't simply "want" to change, I was already changing.

Everyday I pushed for that change, I'd remind myself that new me was going to do it, I was going to succeed.  My life was changing and I intended to ride that wave as far as it could take me.  It was, in truth, a complete reprogramming of my mind.

Of course, I had the negative thoughts creep in.  The voice in my head would tell me I couldn't succeed - I was a fool for even trying.  "No one can go from being you, to being a productive - let alone successful - member of society", it would say.  However, I ignored that voice, I ignored conventional wisdom, and I pushed myself harder.  I encountered a few setbacks along the way. Powerful setbacks, of a kind which could have easily pushed me back into my old habits. It took strength, but I always found a way to remind myself that I didn't want to change, I was changed!

It didn't come easy, and it didn't come instantly, but it did come. I returned my focus to education, and built my life from there.  I pushed myself to always give my best effort in class, or on the job.  Looking back I can't fathom how I was ever the guy that once inhabited this mind and body.  I didn't change the world, but I changed myself, which in turn changed my world.