"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our Attitudes."

Here's something that happened to me where attitude played a major role in the path that my life would take. I used to entertain people by being the lead singer in a 50's Rock and Roll Band. Some days, especially after having a bad one, I would show up to a performance cutting attitude. Even though I would admonish myself and go to great lengths to hide it, the audience's reaction always matched what I was feeling no matter how hard I tried.

Only after some thinking and experimentation on my part, did I arrive at the correct conclusion. I had to understand my feelings and resolve them in my own mind rather than trying to hid them. Each time I did so I discovered that I could change the direction of my performance and receive the good feed back that I worked and practiced so hard to achieve. I began to make the necessary changes.

For example, I found that when I took a nap just before going on stage, my performance would be reflective of a person who is laid back and relaxed. While this is great when I need to chill out, it sure didn't help me present the dynamic and high energy performance the audience as well as myself expected from me.

It occurred to me that I needed to allow myself to make a more gentle transition from slumber to high energy. The way I had been doing it was too much of a shock to my system. I decided that when I felt the need for a nap I would have one earlier in the day, so that I could wake up slower and ease myself onto the stage. I could do this by interacting with my family, a store clerk or two, and perhaps a waiter or waitress in a restaurant first. This as well as the other changes I made in my life took very little time to show me that I was on the right track as my performances improved greatly.

I began to notice that one of the other band members had begun to get me alone and deliberately start an argument just before we went on. It resulted in me having a rather frustrated attitude in the first set of our performances. I wasn't any better than him but I guess he just didn't have the confidence in his talent that I had in him. The only difference between the two of us was that I had begun to project a more positive attitude. It became abundantly clear that he was feeling threatened by me.

I figured he was being unreasonable and immature and reacted to him in kind. Though he did get a taste of his own medicine it did nothing to encourage him to stop. Now that he was getting the reaction he wanted his attempts became more intense and frequent. As we are both short in stature, the rest of the Band in its infinite wisdom started referring to our arguments as the battle of the giants. My performance began to go back down the tubes fast.

I needed to make a change. I didn't want to quit the band as we were all good musicians who worked hard to be the best we could be. Our collective success reflective that attitude.

Of course, then there's that standard, old, reason of never allowing others to run or ruin my life. I decided to stay and face the problem.

I would need to improve the situation with him somehow and it was obvious that changing him would be impossible. The only solution was for me to change the way he affected me.

I began to make it impossible for him to get me alone, as he didn't seem to want an audience when he was bating me. We only lived a few blocks apart and usually took one car to drive to our shows together. Under the guise of having to run errands before or after the shows, I began to drive myself. Before a performance, I did everything I could think of to ensure that we were never alone, but never in a mean spirited or insulting way. My performance on stage began to improve again.

The few time I did find myself alone with him I would try to channel his conversation to positive things in his life like his kids, I even had a joke or two to tell him if need be. If all else failed, I refused to rise to his bate, or take anything he said personally and would remove myself from the situation at the first possible opportunity.

He soon tired of trying as there was no gratification in it for him anymore.

I was in that band for ten years and had many successful experiences especially after I learned to take responsibility for my own act up on stage.