I strongly believe that Attitude is a Key factor in achieving success. You’ve already added the Diversity key to your virtual success keyring, and today I suggest you add Attitude to that virtual keyring as well.

In my case, success only came to me once I allowed my positive personality to shine through. In case you haven’t noticed, my main slogan or catch-phrase is You’ll never shine if you don’t glow. This is actually a line from a Smash Mouth song (AllStar), that affected my life several years ago.

That Smash Mouth song was popular on the radio at a dark time of my life. I was clinically depressed, and completely despondent about where I was in life. I’d turned 40, looked around, and wondered where all the years had gone. Why did I not yet own my own home? Why was I still working in lousy office jobs, making lousy money, and having to deal with lousy bosses and co-workers? (For the record, I’ve also worked with some fabulous people over the years, and had a few jobs that paid pretty well).

As I would drive to work each morning, the Smash Mouth song, AllStar, would inevitably play. (Why do radio stations always play the same songs at the same time anyway?) The song was a happy ditty with positive lyrics…and the one line that really hit home with me was “You’ll never shine if you don’t glow”.

I finally realized that as long as I continued to work in lousy office jobs, without attempting to change that situation, I would never experience anything else. Before my life could shine, I had to light some candles within myself until I glowed. The very first thing I did was to start acting happy. I wasn’t happy, but I pretended that I was. I walked around with a smile on my face, even though I was crying inside. Instead of being Ms. Gloom and Doom, I became Ms. Happy Go Lucky.

In a fairly short time, the pretense of being happy turned into the reality of being happy. Just by acting positive, I became positive. And the more positive I became, the happier I became. Once I had this new-found positive attitude, I began to feel as though I could accomplish the things that I wanted. Most importantly, I wanted to own my own home. As it turns out, it was only my own negative attitude that had prevented me from owing a home. I’d simply assumed that no lender would loan me that much money. I was wrong! I discussed my situation with a lender, and they agreed to finance a home loan for me. Had I not changed my attitude, I wouldn’t even have considered applying for a loan.

From that point onward, I’ve strived to apply that positive attitude to every aspect of my life. Believing in myself allowed me to turn my life around and start a completely new career…one that would eventually lead to being self-employed and working from home (in my pajamas).

Life didn’t stop throwing bad situations in front of me. I’ve dealt with quite a few tough situations – as well as the deaths of my parents – in the last few years, but I knew that my spirit would continue to shine throughout, and a positive attitude (even if faked for a brief period of time) would help me achieve whatever goals I set for myself.

A positive attitude alone won’t achieve all your goals. You’ll need to do some planning and some work as well. But if you learn how to light the candles within yourself…turning on the glow…allowing yourself to shine…you’ll be better able to turn that planning and work into success. In fact, I’d strongly advise feeling that glow within yourself before embarking upon self-employment. It will really help get the ball rolling.

Note: I am not a licensed anything. I am not a doctor or a therapist. The advice above is not meant to infer that clinically depressed people should not seek medical help. Your doctor can effectively treat depression, and if you are depressed, you should seek medical help. However, it won’t hurt to also listen to that Smash Mouth song once in a while.

(from Smash Mouth. "AllStar" Astro Lounge. Interscope Records, 1999.)

Posted on September 3rd, 2007 by DazzlinDonna
Filed under: Keys To Success