Choices and Attitudes

We all make conscious choices, and from my perspective, they are influenced by our attitudes.

If I have a positive attitude, and am presented with an idea, I can weigh the pros and cons, and make a choice that makes me feel good. If I have a more negative attitude about something, say I have already made up my mind before I have all the facts, I am not going to reap any benefits from this idea and cannot open myself to possibilities.

We are faced with choices each and every day. We choose to be positive or negative, and we choose how events or challenges are going to affect us. And these choices stick with us. We choose to accept our lots in life, or we choose to try to make a change or a difference. I honestly believe that our attitudes are our choices influence each other. Adjust a negative attitude, and different choices are made.

We also choose to see the negatives or the positives in a situation. Someone who has a more positive attitude about life in general is going to be the person trying to see the positives in any given moment. A negative attitude however, will not see the positives nor will they try.

Take for example a few people I work with. One has Turner’s Syndrome. She is 24 and is only 4’7”. But she is the tallest person I know. She has the most positive attitude, and her height does not even occur to her. She never complains - I mean never. I have worked with her for a year and a half now, and not once have I heard her complain about the disadvantages of her height. No tall shelf slows her down, and buying a car is more challenging for her, but it doesn’t even occur to her let it slow her down. She has accepted her lot in life, and is making the best of it, each and every day.

Another example is a girl I work with who has Cerebral Palsy. It isn’t as severe as it could have been, but she is challenged. The muscles in her right side are much weaker, so that she cannot really hold anything with her right hand, and she has a slight gait to her walk. But it doesn’t really slow her down either. She had her car fitted with a couple of devices to allow her to be independent, (her gas pedal is on the left side). She types and mouses with her left hand only. But, she carries boxes all the time, and is always walking. She refused the handicapped sticker for her car, and lives her life to it’s fullest. And she has the biggest heart I have ever met.

But on the other side of the fence, I also work with two deaf girls. And both have a “woe is me” attitude. One is also diabetic but doesn’t take care of it. She eats a tonne of sweets all the time, while complaining that it wasn’t made with Splenda. She now has foot problems due to the diabetes, but it is an excuse for her to only do desk work. She can walk down the hall to my desk a dozen times in a day, but to ask her to do some filing, and it’s “Oh, well my feet hurt, I can’t”. She is a nice lady, but it frustrates me because she has such a negative attitude. Everyone else is expected to accommodate her, and when we don’t, we are obviously all out to get her.

My point is that our attitude has a huge impact on our daily lives. Take a negative attitude and put in into Kung Fu. You will have a student who simply expects to be given a stripe or a promotion to a higher belt. This student will complain when someone else surpasses them, because they have been there longer. I hope that students like this, can learn to understand, that Kung Fu is a personal journey. You cannot compare yourself to another.

Same goes for our assignments in class. I admit, that sometimes I don’t feel good enough, and that it is all in my attitude. I have to take a step back and realize that I worked hard to get where I am, and usually once I see the journey I have been on, and my past accomplishments, then my attitude improves.

If we make a choice, and go against our attitude, I am sure that it will have a ripple effect. I could be wrong, but I know that when my attitude is on the sucky side, and I choose to go to class, when I don’t feel good enough, my attitude is always better when I leave.

Just a few thoughts for a cold, but sunny day. Spring is coming, I know it, it’s inevitable!