“The Thoughts in Your Mind Will Always be More Important Than the Things in Your Life"
At a recent golf tournament, one of the seasoned Pros only needed to get down in two from 12 feet away to qualify for the Fed EX Cup Championship. For a professional golfer, that’s no big deal. Twelve feet, 2 putts. No problem. Four putts later, his ball was in the cup and he was out of the finals of the championship. His terrible putting cost him hundreds of thousands of dollars.
When asked what happened, he admitted that the 12 feet on the green was not the problem. The six inches between his ears is where the problem occurred. He lost his concentration and allowed negative thinking to ruin a great opportunity.
John Maxwell says in his book, Today Matters, that your attititude can give you a winner’s perspective or it can make you a loser. It’s our choice. Our actions will follow our thoughts.
On June 28, 1939, Joe Louis defended his heavyweight boxing title against Tony “Tow-Ton” Galento in Yankee Stadium. Galento wasn’t a particularly talented fighter, but he could take a punch and he was a big hitter. In the second round, Louis knocked Galento down and seemed to be controlling the fight. But in the third round, Galento knocked the champ down.
Louis immediately jumped back to his feet and went after his opponent. When Louis went to his corner, his trainer chastised him: “You know you’re supposed to take the full count when you go down. Why didn’t you stay down for nine?”
“What!” answered Louis, “and give him a chance to rest?” Louis pummeled Gelento so badly in the fourth round that the referee stopped the fight.
In today’s competitive culture , everybody is looking for an edge. Top athletes and top businesspeople alike know that—all things being equal—attitude wins. But this is also true: All things not being equal, attitude sometimes still wins. Possessing a great attitude is like having a secret weapon.
Your Attitude—Not Your Achievements—
Gives You Happiness
Samuel Johnson, the eighteenth-century poet and critic, stated, “He who has so little knowledge of human nature as to seek happiness by changing anything but his own disposition will waste his life in fruitless efforts and multiply the grief which he purposes to remove.” He understood that contentment was generated internally, based on attitude.
The thoughts in your mind will always be more important than the things in your life. Fame and fortune are fleeting. The satisfaction that comes from achievement is momentary. The author of the Biblical book of Ecclesiastes observed, “He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver; nor he who loves abundance, with increase.”
You cannot buy or win happiness. You must choose it.
Bill Witcher is co-founder of Computer School for Seniors . He can be reached at bill@cs4seniors.com
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