Attitude and Altitude By Dr. Agoso Arnobius Huladeino Bamaiyi Jesse Louis Jackson, African-American clergyman, politician, and civil rights activist, once made a link between altitude (how high one goes in life) and attitude (how one feels about and sees life and the issues therein) in a speech he gave about the plight of the inner city black population (especially the youth) and how they can turn their situation around for good. He called for a change of attitude, alluding to the fact that the ghetto youth were kept down more by their attitude towards life than any perceived injustice by the white population or the American system. These are his words: “If they can conceive it and believe it, they can achieve it. They must know it is not their aptitude but their attitude that will determine their altitude.” – Jesse Jackson. True words! And there is a scientific validation of that statement. The science of psychology has established a direct link between a person’s attitudes and how well and far that person does and goes in life. Those who approach life with a positive, engaging attitude, enjoy life and achieve more than those who approach life with a negative, detached attitude. Hear this: ultimately you will rise only to the levels you permit yourself, by the type of attitude you chose to employ and, with the help of God, the things you are willing to attempt in life. If you employ and deploy a positive attitude towards people and all the other issues and circumstances of life, you will find it a lot easier to face and overcome all the challenges and obstacles of life and, eventually, reach your full potential. On the other hand, a negative attitude will unnecessarily limit your potential and complicate your life by compounding the challenges and the obstacles with which you are faced. A negative attitude is what really keeps an individual or a people a perpetual underclass or underachievers. So, in reality, what most of us need to live up to our awesome potential and succeed in life is simply a change of attitude; a mental shift from fear to faith, negativism to positivism, doubt to belief, complaining to commitment, laziness to purposeful work. We need an about-turn from thinking that our success in life depends on, or is in the hands of someone else – an uncle or aunty or some other relation, or some rich person or elite to whom we are connected by tribe or nationality – and not in our hands. Your success in life is in your hands. I know, from time-to-time, you will need help from others to push you forward and upward to the next level. It is a fact of life that you cannot scratch your back by yourself, but have you noticed that the part of your back that you cannot reach is a very small portion of your body, maybe less than 3% of your entire skin surface? Doesn’t that tell you something? That you are meant to do your scratching in life, with occasional purpose-built help, until you attain relief? You are responsible for your bed and the way you make it is exactly the way you will lay on it. You will only get help from others when they see you making your bed. So, I ask you; are you making your bed or sitting around idly and complaining about how nobody wants to help you? You know, that is exactly what a lot of our young people are doing! We pass out of secondary school and make no serious attempts to gain admission into a higher institution for graduate studies and the acquisition of professional qualifications and then complain about how nobody is willing to sponsor us. What sponsorship are you going to get when you do not have an admission? We reject available jobs that are meant to move us forward towards better things simply because we feel they are “beneath our dignity”, and then complain about how no one is willing to get us a “big” job. What “big” work can you do when you do not have the necessary experience and preparation that “small” jobs are meant to give you? We spend the little money we get on frivolous living and then wonder why nobody is willing to trust us with money to go into business. What serious business can you do when you are wont to eat the seed that is intended for planting? You want to live like a millionaire when you have not laid the foundation and build the structures that will legitimately support that kind of lifestyle. Who will be foolish enough, even if you are their child, to sponsor your wasteful addictions? I had an encounter with some youth a while ago that aptly illustrate my point. Sometime ago, I spoke passionately in a youth motivational program about how the youth can go from nothing to something, using contemporary and scriptural examples to buttress my point, if they are willing to push themselves and work hard. After an hour and a half of talking and taking questions, a group of four youth walked up to me. They had no question on anything that needed clarification, but a trailer-load of complains against the elites. “Our elites are heartless. They do not want to help anybody. They occupy big positions in politics, government, and the armed forces, without helping anyone to follow their footsteps. All they do is spoil our young girls, live lavishly, build houses and take chieftaincy titles. They are our problem in this community…” they rapped on and on, with angry vehemence and self-righteous pomposity. I stopped them and asked the ringleader, a lady, whether she would not build a house if she made enough money. She answered curtly that that was not the point. “What is the point?” I asked her. “The point is that our elites should change their attitude towards life and be more willing to help the young ones attain success in life.” Now, while her observation does have some merit, I knew that that is not the main problem. With or without the help of the elites, I believe our young people can make something great out of their lives. After all, most of these elites got to where they are today by dint of hard work and positive commitment to life. As a matter of course, they did get help along the way but such help found them on the ground with overalls and tools in hand, working. If they had not gone out there pursuing their dreams, no help would have come to them and no assistance would have been relevant. Now, if they stood up, pursued and made their lives count, who says our young people cannot do the same today? So, you see, the main problem, really, is the attitude of our young people towards life: - Planlessness and purposelessness - Wrong and/or misplaced priorities - Expecting too much from well-to-do relations - Waiting for someone to carry their burdens for them - Misdirected anger against the elites and the system - Laziness and slobbishness - Wanting the “good life” without working for it - Unwillingness to submit to proper mentoring - Feeling too big or too good for certain jobs that are really a means to an end and not an end in themselves - Etc etc etc etc Our young people these days want everything made easy. But if our young people will abandon these negative attitudes and be more forth coming and engaging in life, they can change their story from mediocrity to a glorious one. Take planlessness or visionlessness for an example. After ranting angrily about the failings of the elites, I asked the lady, the ringleader, the following question: “Let’s say I get one of our elites to help you, what exactly do you want? What kind of assistance do you want?” From the look in her eyes, I was sure she did not expect that question. What she actually expected was sympathy, and I was not ready to engage in a pity party. Our young ones do not need sympathy, but practical, concrete engagements that most come, firstly and mostly, from the youth themselves. Then the helpers will appear, at the right time and junctions in the process, to offer necessary help and assistance. You have no right to expect help, when you are doing nothing. Get involved in something constructive and positive in the pursuit of your dreams and, I assure you, helpers will come to your aid as and when you need them. When I pressed our young “activist” for an answer to the above question, she stuttered and stammered and then gave a very vague answer. She had no ready plan but she was overworking her nervous fuses about elites that were not willing to help her! Now, in all fairness, what sort of help will a sensible elite be willing to give to a youth that cannot readily and coherently present a workable plan? Even SURE-P and YOU-WIN, with all their petro-naira, will not give you assistance without a workable business plan and a convincing presentation. And our fiery reforming crusader was eloquently coherent in condemning the elites but lost her sharpness when it was her turn to beam the search on herself! Young people, let’s do away with this attitude of condemnation and confrontation and cultivate an attitude of personal commitment and pursuit. Everything you need in life will come to you if you are willing to pursue committedly. Nobody ever built a great life with condemnation and confrontation. If you can take all that energy and channel it into productive pursuits and constructive engagements you will be celebrated, sooner and later. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh recieveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” (Matthew 7:7, 8) - Ask (not attack in criticism and condemnation!) - Seek (not sit around and merely wish!) - Knock (not fight and destroy!) God has given His word, and the universe is duty-bound to bring it about; if you ask, you will receive, if you seek, you will find, and if you knock, the door will be opened to you. That is an unalterable universal law, good for all time, clime, and types. Your location, age, background, educational status, etc., does not matter. This law will work for one and for all who practice it. It defines the attitude you need to have towards life. Now, my question to you is: “are you asking-seeking-knocking or attacking-sitting-fighting? Which one of the two best describes your attitude towards life right now?” only asking-seeking-knocking will unleash your potential and eventually take you to your dream land. Please remember: nothing is impossible in life, if you believe. “Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” – Mark 9:23. You can change your life and circumstances from weakness to strength, failure to success, poverty to wealth, fear to faith, mediocrity to greatness, if you are willing to: - Change your attitude and outlook on life from negative to positive, possibility thinking. - Stop blaming others for your situation and take charge and responsibility of your life by engaging in positive, constructive, and productive pursuits, no matter how small it may be at the beginning. - Sit down and prayerfully and thoughtfully come up with a workable plan for your life. Define what you want to ultimately become in life and how (the Steps) you plan to get there. - Submit yourself to proper and relevant mentorship. Seek out a good example, in your field of occupation, of the kind of person you want to become and humbly submit to their mentoring. A word of advice: when you approach someone and seek mentorship, you will do well to always remember that it is you that need them (and not the other way round!) and that you relate to learn and not to judge or criticize their personal affairs. So, no matter how smart you think you are mind yourself and humbly learn. - Be willing to work hard and smart. Give your pursuits 110% and see how difficulties and circumstances will bend in your favor. Always remember: all difficulties and challenges in life are beatable. They are not as tough as they present themselves to be at first. - Never give up on a good and legitimate idea or pursuit. Make it a habit to follow through with each of your projects to logical conclusion. That is the way to build up your success step-by-step. It is when you do all these as you work on the field in the pursuit of your life-dream that God will raise helpers for you, as and when due. You will be surprised at the amount of good will that will come your way as you establish your reputation as a serious, committed, and hardworking young man. People will start calling you “Lucky”. But it’s not luck; it’s the attitude of asking-seeking-knocking beginning to produce outstanding results! You, even you, will be celebrated in this life. Keep your peace and keep moving forward. You will get to the top. Peace. I love you!
Posted on: Mon, 10 Mar 2014 17:20:18 +0000
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