Attitudes Affect Life

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact attitude has 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 everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for the 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.

~Charles Swindoll

Lessons

• We are in charge of our attitudes.
• Our attitudes influence ourselves, our families and relatives, our friends and neighbors, our enemies and people we couldn't care less.
• Our attitudes affect our relationships with God and men.
• Our attitudes determine our past, our present and our future.
• Positive attitudes require us to worship God and to enjoy Him.
• Be prepare to live in harmony with all men and all things.

Coffee & Cup

A group of ex-students, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old school teacher. Conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life. Offering his guests coffee, the teacher went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups - porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to hot coffee.

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the teacher said, "If you noticed, all the nice looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups."

"Now if life is coffee, then the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain Life, but the quality of Life doesn't change. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee in it."

Moral lesson

• Don't let the cups drive you crazy, Enjoy the coffee instead.
• Work is fun. Enjoy your work. Don't get unnecessary stressed up by what or how others think, feel or say.
• Adding some milk or sugar to coffee will be nice. Do welcome constructive ideas.
  
• It is you who enjoy the coffee. So don't let anyone or anything spoil it.
• Enjoy!
  

The Miserable Club-99

Once upon a time, there lived a King who, despite his luxurious lifestyle, was neither happy nor content.

One day, the King came upon a servant who was singing happily while he worked.

This fascinated the King. Why was he, the Supreme Ruler of the Land, unhappy and gloomy, while a lowly servant had so much joy?

The King asked the servant, "Why are you so happy?"

The man replied, "Your Majesty, I am nothing but a servant, but my family and I don't need too much - just a roof over our heads and warm food to fill our tummies."

The king was not satisfied with that reply.

Later in the day, he sought the advice of his most trusted advisor.

After hearing the King's woes and the servant's story, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, I believe that the servant has not joined Club-99."

"Club-99? What exactly is that?" the King inquired.

The advisor replied, "Your Majesty, to truly know what Club-99 is, place 99 gold coins in a bag and leave it at this servant's doorstep."

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When the servant saw the bag, he took it into his house.

When he opened the bag, he let out a great shout of joy... So many gold coins!

He began to count them.

After several counts, he was at last convinced that there were 99 coins.

He wondered, "What could have happened to that last gold coin? Surely, no one would leave 99 coins!" He looked everywhere he could, but that final coin was elusive.

Finally, exhausted, he decided that he was going to work harder than ever to earn that gold coin and complete his collection.

From that day, the servant's life was changed.

He was overworked, horribly grumpy, and castigated his family for not helping him make that 100th gold coin. He stopped singing while he worked.

Witnessing this drastic transformation, the King was puzzled.

When he sought his advisor's help, the advisor said, "Your Majesty, the servant has now officially joined Club-99."

He continued, "Club-99 is a name given to those people who have enough to be happy but are never contented. They're always yearning for more and striving for that extra 1 gold coin. They always tell themselves that they must get that final coin before they can be happy for life."

We can be happy, even with very little in our lives.

But the moment we're given something bigger and better, we want even more! We lose our sleep, our happiness, and we hurt the people around us.

All these and much more are the price for our growing needs and desires as we join the miserable Club-99.