The most expensive thing we possess is our ego.
The most valuable thing we possess is a positive attitude.
Think about it, how many people over extend themselves because they ‘want’ something nice – a fancy car, a big house, a boat, etc. By all means if you can comfortably afford those things and they will genuinely bring you happiness then get them. Dig a little deeper and ask the question ‘why’ they wanted those things… I’ll help, it almost always works itself down to their ego. Our wants are super expensive, our needs – not so much.
We need food so we can go to the grocery store and get necessities fairly inexpensive. We want to go to a nice restaurant and eat a fancy meal – that costs many times more than just buying the food and eating at home. Again, if you can comfortably afford to go out to eat, by all means enjoy yourself.
This post is not about unnecessarily depriving yourself of the fruits of your labor – not at all. But it is about keeping our ego’s in check and not allowing ‘them’ to cause more stress and worry because we put ourselves in financial harm just to feed our overzealous ego.
In contrast, a positive attitude toward all things in life can bring joy and happiness, appreciation and humbleness, and even financial reward. I call it “spiraling upward”. When you maintain a positive attitude not only does it give you a terrific perspective it also acts like a magnet for other positive minded people and a shield against negative minded people.
As we surround ourselves with positivity things just begin to change… almost always for the better. That’s not to say things never go wrong or bad things don’t happen, of course they do. Having a positive attitude will cause you to immediately weigh things out and look for a silver lining or work towards a positive outcome.
When we own a business and are responsible for making the critical decisions we will be faced with very challenging situations. Sometimes you’ll be forced to choose the “lesser of two evils”. If you do not have a positive attitude you’ll end up dwelling in the negative of the moment and there is little it will cloud your decision. This may very well lead to a poor outcome and begin a spiraling downward trend because you misunderstand the reality of the moment, your negative attitude causes you to think you’ve made a terrible mistake (when in reality there may not have been a ‘good’ choice) and you beat yourself up… beginning the downward spiral thinking you’re not cut out for this, this isn’t fair, you’re stupid, and so on…
In that same scenario replacing the negative minded person with a person possessing a positive attitude, the immediate decision may very well be the same, yet the lingering effects and long term impact will be very, very different.
In business our decisions are measured and magnified by the business. The decisions we make in business tend to represent larger amounts money and may very well impact more people than the decisions we make in our personal lives. Keep in mind that it’s YOU, the business owner or leader, who is making that decision. A business doesn’t make decisions by itself and it certainly doesn’t care one way or the other about the decisions you make on its behalf. It doesn’t care if it comes to an end – the business has no feelings and no emotions, see my blog “Your business doesn’t give a rip about you, why would you want to marry it.” http://charlesmalexander.com/business/your-business-doesnt-give-a-rip-about-you-why-do-you-want-to-marry-it/
Either way, whether you’re making personal or business decisions the single most important decision you can make is to possess a positive attitude. It will pay you dividends you can’t even begin to count or measure yet.
