How You Think Is the Driving Force of Success

    Once you have committed to a course of action and a definite and certain purpose nothing will have greater influence over your success than your attitude. There is an inside aspect to attitude and an outside aspect to attitude. Attitude is simply the way you think about things. 

Inside and Outside Aspects of Attitude 
    The inside aspect of attitude is the most significant aspect - it is your attitude that will ultimately determine whether you will succeed. If you are positive and believe in the potential of your success you are far more likely to succeed. This has been demonstrated over and over by millions of people. It is often a tremendous challenge to succeed in your goals with a positive and constructive attitude. It is nearly impossible to succeed with a poor attitude. Our own potential for success responds to our attitude. The right attitude will motivate you and maintain that motivation. It will spark innovation, creativity and the perseverance that success requires. Your attitude can be the fuel for your success engine and can make the difference. Attitude by itself is not enough. But without the right attitude success will evade nearly everyone.

    The outside aspect of attitude is how your attitude affects others. Your success in creating wealth

requires you to obtain things from other people. It may be your employees, your customers, your investors, your partners. You will never build significant wealth alone - you need others to succeed. Your attitude can both attract good people to you and motivate them to help you or you can repel them. You can form tremendous partnerships with like minded people with the right attitude and you can lose those same people. Your attitude may the most important factor in gaining the cooperation of others. Again, your attitude alone is not all that is needed. You must offer value to people, you must have integrity; and you must be persistent in your efforts. Given those equally important characteristics however the right attitude can spell tremendous success and lead to the creation of true wealth. 

Positive Thinking
Almost every major philosopher of the modern era has in common their acknowledgment of the power of positive thinking. No aspect attitude is more important than positive thinking. Benjamin Franklin, the father of American philosophy recognized and taught the power of a positive frame of mind. William James, the father of the science of psychology was adamant about the importance of positive thinking. Success literature, beginning in the late 19th century, almost always included positive thinking and attitude as essential to success. Early writers like Orson Swett Marden, Napoleon Hill and others made it a primary element in their teaching. In the depth of the great depression of the 1930s Dale Carnegie wrote about it in his seminal book, How to Win Friends and Influence People and of course Norman Vincent Peale's The Power of Positive Thinking has been a best seller for decades.
     A struggling insurance salesman named W. Clement Stone who went on to found one of the most successful insurance companies of the 20th century was devoted to the value of positive thinking or what he called "PMA" - positive mental attitude - which he considered the most important requisite for success. He had been heavily influenced by Napoleon Hill's book of the 1930s, Think and Grow Rich which also named positive thinking as an important asset. In the 1950s Stone and Hill became partners and spread the gospel of positive thinking in books, lectures and tapes.
    It continues today with success writers like Jack Canfield (a Stone protege), Anthony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn, and many others. In my study of these writers and many more over the years no theme is more prevalent than the importance of positive attitude.

    In my own study of successful people and unsuccessful people I have also found a positive attitude to be essential to long term success. Some people seem to be naturally optimistic and positive. For them positive thinking requires little effort - it seems natural. For others positive thinking requires effort and discipline. For anyone however the effort to train your thinking to be positive pays off with high rewards.
    A positive mental attitude does not guarantee success any more than any one attribute can guarantee success. However it is an important requisite for success. Few people get far thinking negatively. Cultivate positive thinking. Turn off negative thinking which is destructive and limiting. Bring yourself back to positive thinking whenever your mind begins negative self-talk. In a short time you will find it of great benefit.
    Resolve to remain positive and doors will open for you that you would never see in a negative state of mind. You will attract other positive thinking people and this will strengthen your positive outlook. Having a positive attitude is free. You do not have to pay for any course on it. You do not have to study for months or years to master it. Just do it. Do it every day. Let positive thinking open doors of opportunity for you and make life more enjoyable. Nothing will do more to bring you happiness and success than cultivating a positive state of mind.

 Daniel R. Murphy writes on personal development, leadership skills, time management and how you can build wealth and financial independence.