Have you ever noticed how people with a poor attitude have a poor self image? That's always true. One day a boy came home from school and he said "dad, I think I've flunked my math test." And the father said "son, don't say that, that's negative, be positive" The boy said OK dad. I'm positive I failed my math test." People who have a poor attitude act like a poisoned bulldog. They gripe they nag, they complain, they murmur, they constantly criticize, because they are so totally unsecure about who they are. You say to them, "have a good day" and they say "why only one good day?" You can never say anything right to them, because they are totally messed up inside.

People who have a poor attitude have no confidence, they are afraid to make decisions, but when you make one, its the wrong one. They blame other people for everything, they never can make a mistake, they must be right all the time about everything. They have a bully personality because they are scared to death. They try to intimidate other people and control other people, because that's the only way they know to exist in life. When someone criticizes you unjustly, what they are really saying is, "I feel rotten inside, I don't like the real me, so I'm going to criticize you and I'll criticize everything that moves, because if I stop criticizing you, you're gonna start looking at me and you might discover what a shell of a person I am and how shallow I am and how totally insecure I am, and when you discover who I really am, you really won't like me at all, so I'm gonna keep up this bull dog act until I get my way" that's what they're saying.

The question is not what has been done to you, but how you react to what has been done to you.

Which of these next four songs reveal your attitude in life?

1. MAKE THE WORLD GO AWAY
2. RAINDROPS KEEP FALLING ON MY HEAD
3. I DID IT MY WAY
4. OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING

Which of those songs are you singing? Attitudes do not have to be permanent. If you have a bad one, choose a good one and you can change today and today can be a day of new beginnings. Circumstances do not determine your attitude, you do.

Franklin D. Roosevelt became President in a wheelchair. Glen Cunningham burned over 90% of his body in a school house fire who was told by his doctor, he would never walk again. Not only did he walk again, but he fought back with a winning attitude and became a world champion. One young lady had a skiing accident that left her a quadlepledgic she did not retreat from life. She did not roll up in a ball, get in a fetal position and suck her thumb and die. She now paints beautiful works of art, holding a brush in her teeth. THAT's the winning attitude. If she can go through life being handicapped, and still maintain a bright, positive attitude, what's your excuse???

Bob Hope in a special that he was presenting a while back, there were two servicemen sitting in a wheel chair in the front row side by side. One of them had a left arm and the other one had a right arm and they sat side by side and when Bob Hope said something that was funny, one would furnish the left arm and the other would furnish the right arm and they would clap across their wheelchairs even though they were in miserable circumstances, they chose to be happy. We are all angels with one wing and we need each other to fly.

Most people wait for the circumstances to change before they change their attitude. That's exactly backwards. When you change your attitude, it doesn't make any difference what the circumstances are. Look at the people around you who change things because they want the circumstances to change. They change jobs. If you quit your job, the new job that you have, that boss will want you to come to work, look alive, work hard until 5:30, everybody who is looking for employment is not necessarily looking for work. People quit business ventures, people quit churches, because they are looking for the perfect business, looking for the perfect church. If you find the perfect church, don't join it, you'll ruin it. People quit marriages, they are waiting for the circumstances in the marriage to change. Let me tell you something. If you divorce who you're married to, the next klutz you marry will have a bag full of problems. I promise you that. To all of you people who are single, when you date anybody for 3 hours on Saturday night, they can be wonderful. The real person is home in a cage with a lock on it waiting to get out! We quit colleges If you quit college and go to another one, there will be professors there that give exams just like the last one. A student went to his professor and said "I don't think I deserve this F in English" The professor said, "I don't think you deserve it either, but unfortunately, that's as low as we grade around here!!"

Your attitude toward other people determine their attitude toward you. Until you walk in another person's shoes and see life like they see it, you will be like the man who angrily jumped out of his car after the collision with another car and shouted "why don't you people watch where you're going? you're the fourth person I've hit today!"

Are you in business? Your attitude towards your customers is going to determine whether you succeed or fail. Research has discovered the six major reasons why people quit going to business establishments. 1% die, 3% move away, 5% have other friendships, 9% someone else beats the price, 15% have product dissatisfaction, 68% quit because of an attitude of indifference toward them by some employee, 68% of your business goes out the door because of an attitude problem of your employees. Teddy Roosevelt said the most important single ingredient to the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people. John D. Rockefeller said "I will pay more to a man for the ability to get along with people than any other ability under the sun, because the ability to get along with other people is greater than his knowledge" Jesus Christ said "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Your attitude toward other people determines their attitude toward you and if you're going through life acting like a poisoned bulldog, don't expect to have a lot of friends and it's your fault.

A housewife forgot it was garbage pickup day. And as the garbage truck was coming down the street she ran out the door with a garbage can in her hand. Her hair was full of rollers, the bathrobe had a pin in the middle and was flopping in the wind. She had no makeup on, false teeth were in the house and the wig was not on and she was shouting to the man on the back of the truck "do you have room?" He said "sure, jump on lady, we've got plenty of room!"

Your attitude toward other people determines your professional attainments. Success demands a winning attitude. Years ago in Kentucky, a man had a very successful restaurant. There was a problem. A new highway was built taking all of the traffic around his place of business rather than bringing it through. What had been a goldmine dried up overnight. But with a winning attitude, he put his pressure cooker in the back of his old Buick and started traveling across America showing people how to cook his chicken. His product caught on. He franchised it and you know it as Kentucky Fried Chicken. The man is Colonel Sanders and a winning attitude made him a very wealthy man. He could have stayed by that little restaurant by the side of the road and said "nobody ever comes here anymore, it's the government's fault." Instead, he got up took his knowledge and took his attitude and his product and made millions with it. It was his choice.

A waitress in New Orleans, a single mother with several children to support, knew that she could not make ends meet, much less wave at each other, as a waitress. She wanted to start her own restaurant and people said "don't even try it, it's over your head." She ignored their discouraging words, mortgaged her home and bought a steakhouse in New Orleans. She worked hard. With her winning attitude, she produced a superior steak, she franchised her restaurant all over America and you know it as Ruth Chris Steak house. Started by a woman who was told "don't try" but who did try and made the absolute best of it. Have you ever noticed that really genuinely top executives like people. They didn't like people when they got to the top, they liked people when they were at the bottom, that's what got them to the top. The job never makes a man, its the man who makes the job. You can put a little man in a big position and he is still a little man. Position means nothing. It's your attitude that means everything.

A boy come home with dog #5 and his mother said, "that's too many dogs, you're gonna sell that one!" The next morning, he stood on the corner with his dog, a little sign on a card "DOG FOR SALE" nobody stopped. A supersalesman saw the boy and got out of his car and said "look boy, if you want to sell that dog, you need to change your attitude about that dog." So the next day the supersalesman passed that corner and the little boy stood there with his dog all fluffed up, nice red ribbon around his neck, a sign 4'x8' on plywood "WORLD CHAMPION DOG, $5,000" That afternoon he came back and scratched in Crayola on that sign was 'SOLD' The supersalesman went to the boy's house and said "did you sell that dog for $5,000?" The boy said, "No, I made a better deal. It traded him for two $2500 cats." It's just how you want to look at it.