How's the World Treating You?

We live in a world of words.  We have a word for everything, and some of these names and labels mean a great deal to us.  Words such as "love," "happiness," "success," "achievement," "joy," and "ability" describe conditions all of us want.  But there is one word which controls them all.  That is, there is one word which describes a condition which will bring us all of these things, or keep us from getting any one of them.

I call it the "magic word," and it is "ATTITUDE!"  Once we grown and on our own, this word actually controls our environment, our entire world.

If you are curious about what kind of an attitude you have, a simple test will tell you what it has been up to this point in your life.  Just answer this question with  a "yes" or "no": "Do you feel the world is treating you well?"  If your attitude toward the world is good, you will obtain good results.  If your attitude is excellent, excellent will be your results.  If your attitude is negative, little that is positive awaits you.  And if your attitude is just so-so, you will live in a world that is not particularly bad, not particularly good, just so-so.

Our environment, which is another way of saying how the world treats us, is nothing more than a reflection, a mirror actually, of our own attitudes.

One of the most pitiful aspects of society is really the large percentage of people who lead dismal, narrow, darkened lives, crying out against what appears to be a cruel world which they believe has singled them out for a lifetime of trouble, misery, and bad luck.  Anyone who finds himself in such a prison of discontent should face the fact that he has very probably built his prison with his own hands.  And unless such a person changes, his cell will continue to grow smaller and darker.

The world doesn't care whether we change or not.  Adopting a good, healthy attitude toward life doesn't affect life and the people with whom we come in contact nearly as much as it affects us.

It would be impossible even to estimate the number of jobs which have been lost, the number of promotions missed, the number of sales not made, the number of marriages ruined by poor attitudes.  But you can number in the millions the jobs which are held but hated, the marriages which are tolerated but unhappy; all because of people who are waiting for others, or the world, to change toward them, instead of being big enough and wise enough to realize that we only get back what we put out.

In thirty days you can change your world and your environment by making this simple test.  For thirty days treat every person you meet, without a single exception, as the most important person on earth.  You will find that they will begin treating you the same way.  You see, every person, as far as he is concerned, is the most important person on earth.  How does the world look at you?  Exactly as you look at the world.