Day Five::90% Attitude

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, 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 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." -Charles Swindoll

In my background of "illustrious" careers, I have the title of Bartender on my resume. (It's the job that my Mom still refers to with a note of disdain as she merely says "that job.") However, you learn alot about people when you work at a bar. It's a great place to study human behavior.

One of the more interesting lessons I learned was about attitude. It is the nature of bar business that on occasion you have a patron that has what we liked to call "the miseries." I suppose some people might call it the "blues" or "depression," but I always liked the miseries better. If you have someone that comes in all the time with the miseries then they get their own nickname "Misery Jim," for example.

I learned alot about attitude watching Misery Jim belly up to the bar night after night. The first thing I learned is that when you have a bad attitude over a prolonged period of time the only people who want to be around you are other people of like mind. Poor Jim, no one wanted to serve him because the minute you ask how he's doing he would give you a lengthy diatribe on all his ailments.

The people that took the stools around Misery Jim all liked to talk about how badly their life sucked, and about all the people who were out to get them. However in time, even other people with the miseries stop want to be around you, and then your misery becomes a self fulfilling prophecy, because you are alone and miserable.

The funny thing is, by alot of people's standards Jim life wasn't that miserable. He had a pretty good job, where he worked hard but made more than enough money to pay all his bills. He had a roof over his head, food on his table, and enough money in the bank to satisfy all of his needs.

So what caused Jim's miseries?

Jim was so busy keeping an inventory of all the things he wanted that he didn't have. All the breaks he felt were owed to him and went to someone else. If he had spent as much time keep track of his blessings as he did keep track of other people's Jim might not have been so miserable.