Note: this is a guest post by David Bohl from Slow Down Fast. Photo by lazy butterfly.

“Attitude is everything.” I’ve read two books recently with a title similar to that, and I hear it constantly when people talk about self-improvement and reaching goals. “Attitude is everything.”

I wonder. Sure, attitude is important. If you feel you can do something, you’re likely to be more successful. If you have a positive attitude, you can overcome even the most difficult circumstances more easily.

This whole idea of attitude being everything brings to mind, for me, Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning. You may be familiar with Dr. Frankl. He survived the Holocaust while most of his family died in the camps. He founded a school of psychological thought known as logotherapy.

Many people like to say that Dr. Frankl survived and even thrived to some degree because he thought he could. He had a good attitude.

It’s true; he did think he could survive. But in addition to that attitude, he spent a great deal of time working on survival. He created incredibly vivid pictures in his mind—pictures of his beloved wife and conversations with her, pictures of himself speaking to huge crowds after his release. He worked, mentally, on recreating the scientific manuscript he had been forced to surrender when he entered the camps.

I don’t know if attitude is 50% or 80% or 99.9% of getting things done. But I know this. I can sit here in my office, in my chair, all day, with the attitude that I’m going to write a book and publish it. But if I sit here in my office, in my chair, with no paper, no pen, and my computer turned off, I’m not going to write a book.

I’m not putting down attitude. I believe very firmly that attitude is important. You have to add a great attitude to your action to make your actions bring you the reward you seek. I try to have a positive attitude at all times so that I can act, instead of react, to things.

What I am saying is that “I think I can” is not enough.

You remember The Little Engine that Could. He thought he could, and he did. But he didn’t sit around thinking he could. He got his attitude right, and then he went to work.

Attitude and action have to be paired, or we can find ourselves completely unable to accomplish things that would be easy if we both had the right attitude and took the right action.

My fear is that sometimes we get so caught up in positive thinking, that we don’t pay enough attention to positive doing. I want us to have the attitude that we can do anything—and then go out and do it.

I like to make lists and plans. I like to know what I’m aiming for, and how I can get there. Sure, I have the attitude that I can make those wishes come true, but I know that just believing I can do it is only part of the equation.

This article was written by David B. Bohl - Husband, Father, Friend, Lifestyle Coach, Author, Entrepreneur, and creator of Slow Down FAST. For more info visit his blog at Slow Down Fast blog.

Tags: Life, Success //