Thought for the Day: It’s Your Attitude!

By Jim Lutz

JULY 6. IMAGINE this. It's July 6, 2001, 5:50 a.m., and the temperature is 38 degrees.

Now before you panic and think that Rod Serling is opening another episode of "The Twilight Zone," let me assure you that Mr. Serling didn’t have enough cutting edge ideas to try and sell the public on the notion that it could actually be close to freezing in early July.

Welcome to reality!

As I walked out the front door this morning in my polo shirt, shorts and Birkenstock sandals ready for a beautiful summer day, my mind quickly focused on the heater in the car and how quickly I could get in working. Thankfully, I didn’t have to scrape the ice off the windows because the scrapers are somewhere in a box, somewhere in the garage, still untouched as
we continue to unload boxes after our recent move.

Upon arriving at the pool I realized that 38 degrees in July doesn’t have the same effect as 38 degrees in November. Why is this and how is it possible?

I don’t feel that it is any secret that it all comes back to your outlook and expectations. I know by the middle of the afternoon it is going to be in the mid-70’s with very little chance of clouds or bad weather. I also am aware that my sons and I will be taking a bike ride, playing street hockey, or tossing a ball when I get home tonight.

It reminds me of the story of the man who wanted to move his family to another town. He stopped at the filling station (that’s a gas station for those of you too young to remember the term) and asked the attendant what the people who lived in the town were like. The attendant asked the man, "what were the people like where you came from?"

"Many were pretty mean-spirited and down-right nasty," said the man.

"Well, they’re kind of like that here, too."

A few weeks later another man drove into town and asked the same attendant the same question about the town and its people.

The attendant once again asked, "What are the people like where you lived?"

"They were great. Very kind and giving people who cared about one another."

"Well, they’re kind of like that here, too."

How are the people you work with? How are the people on your team, in your neighborhood? Do you even know your neighbor well enough to say hello or carry on a conversation? If I asked you why don’t you talk to your neighbor, would you say because he has never said hello to me? Could your neighbor give the same answer if I asked him why he never talks to you?

Maybe we need to be the first: The first to say hello… the first to lend a hand… the first to offer your time… the first to show you care… the first to forgive for a misunderstanding… the first to accept that the
mistake was yours.

So if you wake up tomorrow and the day is not starting like you had hoped for, are you going to be the first to complain about the rain or are you going to say how the rain will help the crops and the flowers to grow?

There can only be one "first," so make sure the
"firsts" in your life set the example that others need to follow.

Have a great day…I know I will!

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