Inspirational Quotes & Stories about Attitude

You need not wait until the end of your journey to enjoy and be thankful for every experience during the journey. Equally so, you need not wait for your accomplishment to appreciate all the pieces of the puzzle. You need simply remember that in order to complete the puzzle, all pieces were of use. In this simple memory and understanding lies your appreciation of not only the puzzle, but of all its pieces. And in the acceptance of the necessity and usefulness of its pieces lies your peace about the pieces you have already put together and the pieces you will deal with in the future. And of equal importance, you will be at peace with, and have appreciation for, all the pieces you currently are working on.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 55-56

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My friend, regardless of what the world tells you, or how you perceive your current situation, I offer you this: the road you have taken is the road that you needed to take. You are exactly where you need to be. Do now whatever offers you peace. Make peace with your past, for without it you would not be at this point in your life. The pieces you have chosen to put together are complete. You might not yet know how they fit into the puzzle, but friend, they do and will fit. You are now working on the pieces you believe you need to work on to get you to the next step. Be at peace with the knowledge that they too will also fit the puzzle. You have the choice to be at peace with this knowledge or to judge, criticize and be disappointed with your current decisions and situation. Those are the only two choices you truly have. They are, simply put, the choice between sanity and insanity. The ego's world, in and of itself, is an insane world, which is the main reason it applauds you for making the insane choice. And so, over and over, you make the insane choice and judge, criticize and feel disappointed with yourself and your brother, sister and the world. My friend, once you can acknowledge that insanity is but a choice, you will find its power over you diminishing. Then, one day, instead of acting insanely, you will act with sanity and gratitude, for you will understand that one more piece of the puzzle is now in place.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 56

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Friend, the world you see outside yourself is simply a reflection of the world that you have shaped and supported within. The world you experience is simply an extension of your mind. The level of stress or peace you experience in the world is in direct correlation to the level of stress or peace within your mind. The more at peace you are with yourself, the more peaceful the world will appear to be. The more peace you have in your inner world, the more peace you will experience and extend to the outer world; whereas, the more stress you feel within, the more stress you will experience and extend into the outer world. The correlation here is not what is occurring in the world, but how you feel about yourself within your mind. My friend, it is for this reason that you are asked to work on yourself first. If you work on your mind, the rest will follow. As you change your thoughts and mind, you change your perception of the world and the way you react and participate in it.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 106

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You have now felt what five minutes fully dedicated to thinking negatively or positively can do to your body, mind and soul. Again, think of what a whole day of positive or negative thoughts can do. Think of what a whole day of the ego's thought system where you immediately judge a brother or sister, or how a whole day of the Godself's thought system where you immediately see a stranger as a brother or sister, as the perfect creation of God can do. Now multiply that by 365 days and then by the number of years you have lived. That is the power of one positive or negative thought when it is added to the next positive or negative thought and to the next, and so on and so on. Each thought occurs in the moment, and it is in the moment where your life develops and grows. So the next time you judge a brother or sister, catch yourself doing this and forgive yourself and your brother and sister. Bless and pray for yourself and your brother and sister. Offer gratitude to them for assisting you in seeing where, through your thoughts, you were taking yourself. Offer gratitude to God and invite Him to remind you that the same light that exists within Him and you also exists within your brother and sister. My brother and sister, our lives are simply a reflection of what we choose to think in the moment.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 192-193

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See who you will in the other car, but know this: that person is a mirror image of you. There is nothing that you wish for that person that you do not experience yourself. Be angry with him and you will feel it within yourself. Forgive, understand and have compassion for him, and you will also feel that within. There is nothing you do to another that you don't do to yourself. You know this to be true because you have felt your own anger. Regardless of where and to whom you distribute it, you have felt its consequences.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 203

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Attitude is a choice. The external environment in and of itself is neutral. The external environment's neutrality is broken by your perception and reaction to it. Your perceptions and reactions are colored by your past beliefs and interpretations. Past beliefs and interpretations are adopted from what you were taught, and have subsequently taught yourself is the proper, normal, acceptable, agreeable, productive or comfortable way of reacting or being.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 208

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"We who lived in the concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: The last of his freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." ²³

- Victor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. 209
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"Jerry was always in a good mood, and always had something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason the waiters followed Jerry was his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I approached to Jerry and remarked, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

Jerry replied, "Each morning, I wake up and say to myself, 'Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept his complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life."

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business; he left the back door open one morning and was held up at gun point by three armed robbers. While trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked him how he was, he said, "If I were any better, I'd be twins. Wanna see my scars?" I declined to see his wounds but did ask him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place.

"The first thing that went through my mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry replied. "Then, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live."

"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.

Jerry continued, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the emergency room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read, 'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" I asked. "Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me," said Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. "Yes," I replied. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, "Bullets!" Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

Jerry lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything."

- Anonymous

Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. 209-211
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A heavy snowstorm fell throughout the day. As most of you know, when it snows, it takes more time to get to work. You become more concerned about possible car accidents, your ears, nose and feet freeze, the wind can reach into your bones and even walking becomes a hazard. On this particular day, I participated in "A Course in Miracles" study group and I could feel that the snowstorm had taken a toll on the energy of the group. It had taken a toll on all except for one of the students.

I wondered how he could be so upbeat after such a day, especially since this man had a job that kept him on the road. He shared with the group that on the way to the post office, he went into a coffee shop to get out of the storm and cold for a while. While sitting in the coffee shop he looked around and saw that most of the people there seemed miserable with red noses, sniffling, coughing, bundled up in layers of clothes. He too was feeling quite miserable. He too was sniffling, tired and cold. Then he remembered that in the Course, it stated that you are in control of your perceptions. Right then and there, he decided to do something about his attitude.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 215

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While writing this chapter on attitude, I received the following dream. This was a non-lucid dream, meaning that while I was experiencing the dream, I had no clue that I was dreaming nor did I have any conscious control over the events that were occurring. Even though the dream was a non-lucid one, the colors, emotions, environment, actions and reactions were so shockingly realistic that when I awoke, I had no problem recalling it and putting it down on paper. In the dream, I was an old man retelling and reliving the story at the same time.

It was World War II. Every day, while fighting the Nazis, my fear mastered most every moment. I knew I was fighting the devil. I knew that every day I was in hell. I had a friend who, in the darkest of moments when things seemed hopeless, did three pirouettes in the air like a ballerina and landed with the biggest smile on his face. I'm not sure what brought about that confident smile. Was it the guys breaking up with laughter, as this two hundred pound man danced in the air? Was it just a momentary shift into another world? I don't know what it was, but after he landed and gave us his smile, things became different. We called it the BD/AD effect, the before dance, after dance effect. The BD/AD effect was upgraded to "dad" (from BD/AD which spells DAD) which was upgraded to "father." Thus, my friend was now simply known as "father." In the scariest of moments one could ever imagine, at times when the only natural emotion of a sane individual was total panic and fear, at moments when we were in hell fighting the devil-these were the times father did three pirouettes, landed and gave us a big smile. Regardless of the hell we were facing, the moment would be lost and all we could do was look at each other and laugh. I had always believed that father was a little nuts, until the day he taught me the greatest lesson I have ever learned.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 220

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Little by little you hear people changing the way they talk. More and more you hear people saying "everything happens for a reason." I remember not so long ago when most people just believed that "shit happens." They were basically saying that good or bad things happen and that's the way it is-and you just have to deal with it. Now we are in a time when I hear a lot of people saying to one another "everything happens for a reason." This means that good or bad stuff will happen but there is a higher purpose for why it happened and you should be patient and understanding. In the end, something good will come from your experience.

In order to encourage the people who are saying that everything happens for a reason to take it to the next level of evolution, I would like to offer the view that "everything happens for your own good." This means that everything that is happening to you now can be used now for your development and growth. You don't have to wait for the future to be grateful for what is happening to you now. If properly perceived, every moment, regardless of its physical manifestation, is a gift you have offered yourself. My friend, I understand that you might look back at your life, and tell yourself that this cannot be so. If you believe this is so, I have no interest in changing your mind about how you wish to carry your past. I have no interest, not because I do not care, but because I have an absolute respect for how you choose to carry your past and view your reality. The only thing that I do ask is for you to consider the possibility. It is in considering this possibility that you allow yourself to expand and develop. The acceptance of the possibility is not as important to me as your sincere consideration of it.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 223

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"This may shock you, but I believe the single most significant decision I can make on a day-to-day basis is my choice of attitude. It is more important than my past, my education, my bankroll, my successes or failures, fame or pain, what other people think of me or say about my circumstances, my position, or me. Attitude is that 'single string' that keeps me going or cripples my progress. It alone fuels my fire or assaults my hope. When my attitudes are right, there's no barrier too high, no valley too deep, no dream too extreme, no challenge too great for me." ¹

- Pastor Charles R. Swindoll, Strengthening Your Grip

Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. 227
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Think back to times when you have been in either a good or bad mood, and recall how being in that mood colored your experience for the day. The world feels tougher, less fair and more hopeless when you are in a bad mood. If you're in a bad mood, little things upset you much more than if you are in a good mood. Those little or not so little things are still the same; the only thing that changes the way you see them is the kind of mood you're in, or your mental state. Depending on whether you're in a peaceful or agitated mental state, those little things will affect you differently. Little by little, you start realizing that reality has nothing to do with what those little things are.

- James Blanchard Cisneros, You Have Chosen to Remember: A Journey From Perception to Knowledge, Peace of Mind and Joy, p. 231

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A passage from "The Experiment Hope" by Jurgen Moltmann illustrates that every part of your journey, regardless of its physical manifestation and your perception of that manifestation, can, if you so desire, be experienced with peace, and that gratitude need not wait to be experienced at the journey's conclusion. Moltmann writes:

"For more than three years, I was in a prisoner-of-war camp, and I understand something of the language of prisoners, the loneliness and the dreams of the "unhappy"... Hope came to life as the prisoner accepted his imprisonment, affirmed the barbed wire, and in this situation, discovered the real human being in himself and others. It was not at his release, but even while in prison, that the "resurrection from the dead" happened for him." ²⁶

- Jurgen Moltmann, The Experiment Hope

Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. 240
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"If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare wrote poetry, like Beethoven composed music..." ^1b
                                                  

- Martin Luther King Jr.

Cited in You Have Chosen to Remember, p. 246
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Footnotes / Acknowledgments

Every effort has been made to provide accurate source attribution. Should any attribution be found to be incorrect, the author welcomes written documentation supporting correction for subsequent printings. For material not in the public domain, selection was made according to generally accepted fair-use standards and practices.

1. Charles R. Swindoll, Strengthening Your Grip, Word Books, Waco, TX, Copyright 1982, p. 207.    >> back to quote

1b. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., "Facing the Challenge of a New Age," Sermon delivered at Holt Street Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, December 3, 1956, Copyright The Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr.   
>> back to quote

23. Victor E. Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning, Copyright 1997 (Beacon Press).    >> back to quote

26. Jurgen Moltmann, The Experiment Hope, Copyright 1975 (Augsburg Fortress).   >> back to quote
 

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