A Kick in the Attitude: An Energizing Approach to Recharge your Team, Work, and Life

Chapter 12. A Kick in the Attitude Principle #10: It's Not the Season, but How We Respond in the Season That Counts

It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it.

—Lena Horne

Sometimes even when we have made the choice to change the picture of our lives, we get walloped in the head by some unexpected change or challenge. I know, because I've lived through a tornado. When I was in high school, the town where I lived was wiped off the map by a rare twister. My home was destroyed, but we all survived.

Even the strongest attitudes can be tested by storms. Adversity is an unscheduled appointment to wrestle with our attitude. The key is to not let the storm take control of our lives, but instead to use our attitude to navigate.

I don't want to mislead you about my approach to adversity. Let's be real; when it happens, it hurts. When you stub your toe, it's painful. But it's not the wall's fault. It happened; deal with it and move forward.

I don't know about you; but I'm fed up! I am mostly tired of listening to all the complaining around me. Turn on the television news or the radio, pick up a newspaper, and what do you see? Bad news. You look around and realize that people are very scared right now. They don't know what to expect. The housing market is awful; jobs are being cut; companies need bailouts; and the list goes on. One person told me his company laid off thousands of people; those who stayed had to take a 10 percent pay cut. Why? Some think it was so the company's ...