What is Positive Attitude?

I have participated to a seminar of Acar Baltaş on December 10th in Antalya. I would like to share and elaborate what impressed me most from his speech that I also found resemblances from my actions.

In his speech, Acar Baltaş has stated a different view that you do not normally expect from these kind of seminars. He expressed, as people who are almost at the half period of our lives (0-35- 40 years old), we lived the best half of our lives. Going forward, all aspects of life will not be as good as the first half. He justified his statement, which is contrary to most of self-development speeches that gives mostly optimism and states “Everything will be fine, just ask for it!”:

You will experience below in the majority part of the second half of your life;
• You might have a good job, you can also get promoted in the first years of the second half. However, probably you will have problems and concerns in your career due to getting old.
• You will face deaths of your parents and beloved ones
• Definitely, your health will not be as good as the first half.

Then, how can we be happy, and enjoy life if we are 30-40 years old now and that’s what we will encounter soon in the second half?

Having a “Positive Attitude” is what Acar Baltaş recommends and which I found resemblances from my life.

• Let’s define attitude first. Attitude is a person’s mental state towards people or matters. For example, if someone says “I love my job.”, means he/she has positive attitude towards his/her job. Attitude states what people feels about anything. 
• Positive thinking and accompanying positive attitude, increases life satisfaction. Positive thinking is to focus on “what might happen” in the future which you can change, instead “what has happened” in the past which you cannot change.
• People with positive attitude, no matter which difficulties he/she is having, always thinks, what is best in it for him/her, and what can he/she does with it. Example given in the seminar explains this well. Think about a man, who is floating in flood and holding a strump. If he has negative attitude, he thinks he is going to die soon, people who are on the roof of houses are luckier than him and this way of thinking does not help him. If he has positive attitude, even though he is floating, he thinks at least he is still breathing and holding a strump that supports him, and tries to find a solution to get rid of this situation with what he has on hand. This way of thinking helps him more.
• People with positive and constructive attitude focuses on his/her strengths and creates opportunities to do his/her best in life. Thus, they become people who love what they are doing and do what they are loving.
• To summarize, people with positive attitude sees obstacles as opportunities; thinks solutions instead problems; thinks constructive and creative; sees failures as lessons learned and accepts realities as they are.

Finally, if you constantly complain about your personal and work life, feel like “Why it all happens to me?!”, be in a negative mood, and think other people are happier/luckier than you, maybe it is time for you to be aware of the effect of attitudes you have.

Keep in mind as per 90-10 principle, Life is 10% of what happens to you, and 90% of how you react to it.

What will you do next? What will you change?

90-10 Principle
(Charles R.Swindoll)