John Wooden, the great UCLA basketball coach who won more NCAA championships than any collegiate coach in history, once made a profound statement about life in general. He said, “Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out!” I think he was talking about the most powerful determiner of success: attitude. Attitude is a choice, not an emotion, not a talent that some possess and others do not, not a complicated skill to be learned, but a choice. It can be a difficult choice, especially in the face of adversity or tragedy, yet there are those among us who are still able to make the right choice.
Think of attitude as a discipline, the same as staying fit or keeping up to date in a profession. You must work at it daily in order to make it work for you. I think the best description of attitude is “doing what builds our character and our life to the highest degree.” The natural result of attitude is action. A great attitude produces an abundance of positive action. A poor attitude creates no action or destructive behavior. Procrastination is the result of a poor attitude. The way we treat people is a result of poor attitude. The interesting thing is this: it all starts and forms in our daily thoughts.
Thinking is like getting in shape. The more positive and productive thoughts we have the more success we realize. Earnest Henley’s great poem “Invictus” is the ultimate reflection of the power of thought and attitude. The last four lines of the poem say it all.
“It matters not how straight the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul!”
“Invictus” is an autobiographical poem. Henley had an incredibly turbulent life. He was one of six children raised in poverty. He was afflicted with tubercular arthritis at age 12. His left leg was amputated when he was 16. He spent months in hospitals struggling with illness and he lost his only child to cerebral meningitis. Yet, he was one of England’s most celebrated poets and playwrights. The author was writing from personal experience and his life is a tribute to maintaining a great attitude in the face of constant adversity.
Today is a wonderful opportunity. It affords you the chance in a single moment of time to alter the course of your history, to change the direction of your life, to make a difference. The special moment comes when you make the choice, when you choose to be among the conquerors of life, not the vanquished, when you refuse to let the occurrences of each day determine your outlook like the ebb and flow of the tides. From your first thought when you awake at sunrise until the last thought at midnight choose to be a positive participant in the game of life and you will be one of life’s “All Stars.”