he’s going to be baffled by their response to him. You can never
surpass your expectations—and the pessimist is always looking for
rationale for notsucceeding.”THE ATTITUDE INSTRUMENT
My first (and only) flight lesson was an event I’ll not soon for-
get. My instructor had a strange approach to teaching flying. He’d
get you up to about 10,000 feet and then start hollering instruc-
tions. This teaching process tended to be a bit unnerving, espe-
cially on a first lesson.
Shortly into the flight, he began to yell, “Look at your attitude.”
I replied, “What? I’m fine.”
“No,” he said. “Your attitude!”
“Why is he concerned with my mental approach?” I wondered.
He looked at me like I was an idiot, “Look at your attitude
instrument.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
He pointed to an instrument that showed where the wings
were in relationship to the horizon. It seemed my wings were a bit
tilted. We were going to land all right, but not on the wheels. He
then showed me how to level my wings or, in other words, how to
straighten out my attitude. When we reached the ground, I real-
ized that I had learned a good lesson from a poor teacher. —The
Daily DoseWhenever people talked about attitude, I thought they were talking
about feeling positive emotions—which I thought was just a put-on. That
day, I found that attitude is nothing more than keeping yourself headed to-
ward your stated goals or keeping your wings pointed to your personal hori-
zon. I also realized that those who have not defined a personal horizon
quickly fall prey to dangerous attitudes.
If the winds of adversity and discouragement blow you off course, don’t
give up. Rather, make the necessary adjustments and keep moving toward
your goal. Attitude is not a feeling; it is a mental adjustment we must make
a hundred times a day or more, if we want to reach our horizons.
Attitude, in its literal form, is nothing more than adjusting to interfer-
ing winds and circumstances in pursuit of personal goals or horizons. Those
winds may be blowing in from the home office, and the circumstance may
be permanent, but the person who understands attitude and the need for
optimism simply adjusts as often as necessary. Ultimately, our progress and
performance depend on where we set those horizons. It is helpful to sit
Redefining Optimism 103