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THE POWER OF YOUR ATTITUDE Copyright © 2016 Stan Toler Published by Harvest House Publishers Eugene, Oregon 97402 www.harvesthousepublishers.com

ISBN 978-0-7369-6825-6 (pbk.) ISBN 978-0-7369-6826-3 (eBook)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Toler, Stan, author. Title: The power of your attitude / Stan Toler. Description: Eugene, Oregon : Harvest House Publishers, 2016. Identifiers: LCCN 2016004091 (print) | LCCN 2016022725 (ebook) | ISBN 9780736968256 (pbk.) | ISBN 9780736968263 () Subjects: LCSH: Attitude (Psychology)—Religious aspects—Christianity. Classification: LCC BV4509.5 .T65 2016 (print) | LCC BV4509.5 (ebook) | DDC 248.4—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016004091

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To my granddaughter,Clara Jane Toler

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Contents

Why You Need This Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

The Gift of a Great Attitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Part 1: The Power of Your Attitude

1. The Power of Thoughts: Your Thoughts Shape Your Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

2. The Power of Words: Your Words Become Your Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

3. The Power of Actions: Your Actions Determine Your Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

4. The Power of Habits: Your Habits Predict Your Future . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

5. The Power of Choice: Your Choices Change Your Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Part 2: Seven Choices with the Power to Transform Your Life

6. Believe It Will All Work Out: Choose Hope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

7. Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously: Choose Humility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

8. Count Your Blessings: Choose Gratitude . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89

9. Give More Than You Take: Choose Generosity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

10. Be Kind to Everyone You Meet: Choose Compassion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109



11. Celebrate Life: Choose Joy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

12. Keep Going No Matter What: Choose Perseverance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

Part 3: Becoming a Positive Person

13. Rebooting Your Brain for a Positive Outlook: Change Your Future by Renewing Your Mind . . . . . . . . . . . 141

14. Leveraging the Mind-Body Connection: Improve Your Attitude by Improving Your Daily Habits . . . 153

15. Becoming a Positive Influence: Help Yourself by Helping Others . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

You Can! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179



7

Why You Need This Book

Many people are trapped in negative thinking that produces fear, failure, and unhappiness. Though they may long for greater achievements, better relationships, and happier lives, they’re

mired in a spiral of negative thinking, complaining, and self-fulfilling prophecies. Sadly, many give up even wishing for change and settle for a life that’s boring and unfulfilling.

If that describes you, I have great news: It doesn’t have to be that way! The secret to a happier and more successful life is not to change your circumstances (you often can’t) or to control what others do (you never can). It’s to change the one thing over which you have absolute authority—your attitude.

It’s been proven time and time again that people with a positive out-look are happier and more successful, and have greater career satisfac-tion and a better self-image. The reason for this is simple: Your attitude has incredible power to shape your life. Negative thinkers see negativity, think negative thoughts, and develop negative habits. Not surprisingly, they feel worse about themselves, enjoy less success, and experience less joy in life. Positive thinkers see possibilities, choose to pursue them, and more easily bounce back from failure. They have more energy and hope, and encounter more opportunities. Both types of thinkers live in the same world, but those who have a positive attitude leverage a power that enables them to move through life with greater joy and satisfaction.

Through the pages of this book, I’ll share with you the lessons I’ve learned about positive psychology and the power of a positive attitude to transform your life for the better. Many of these lessons came from the most positive thinker I’ve ever known, my dad. Though he passed



The Power of Your Attitude8

away when I was just 11 years old, he modeled for me the seven critical choices that have shaped my entire life. I want to share those insights with you. Through this book you will…

• recognize the incredible, often unnoticed power of atti-tude in every area of life.

• be inspired to believe that change is possible, regardless of the circumstances.

• be confident of your ability to implement change through simple, practical strategies.

• leverage the power of positive mental choices.• gain courage for dealing with disappointment and

failure.• become a happier, more successful person.

If you’re thinking that’s too good to be true, let me assure you it’s not. This isn’t magic or wishful thinking. I’ll share with you the proven principles that have been tested not only by my own experience but by a host of scientific research. These chapters will…

• provide real-life examples of the power of attitude.• create a sense of urgency in you for personal change.• demonstrate the positive effect of choosing joy, gratitude,

kindness, hope, and other virtues.• teach practical strategies for implementing personal life.

I’m eager to share these life lessons with you. I believe you have the power to make positive life choices, choose a positive outlook, and transform your life from stuck to spectacular. You can do this!



15

Part 1

The Power of Your AttitudeYour Attitude Determines Your Destiny

Your attitude is the basic lens or frame through which you see yourself, the world, and other people. You can have a positive attitude or a negative one, and you’ll see the world accordingly.

A very wise man once said, “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when your eye is bad, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!”1 In other words, the way you look at things (your “eye”) will shape the course of your life for better or worse. The good news is that you can have a positive attitude that shapes your life in posi-tive ways!

In this section, you’ll discover the five critical ways that your atti-tude exerts power in your life:

thoughtwordactionhabitchoice

In the next five chapters, you’ll discover why your attitude matters so much in determining your future. You’ll see the incredible power of the mind in shaping your life and your happiness. And remember, you have the power to choose your attitude!



17

1

The Power of ThoughtsYour Thoughts Shape Your Identity

Y our first step forward in harnessing the power of a positive atti-tude is to believe that your attitude actually does exert incredible influence over every aspect of your life. What you think shapes

your identity, literally determining the kind of person you’ll be and the things you’ll do. The people who achieve their goals, enjoy success, and seem to be happy despite their circumstances didn’t get that way by accident. They chose to have a positive outlook, and that choice shaped everything else about them. Likewise, the people who drift through life complaining that nothing good ever happens have also made a choice. They interpret their circumstances through the lens of a negative atti-tude. Everything looks bad to them, and it becomes bad.

You may be thinking, Well, some things really are bad! And you’re right. People face difficult, even heartbreaking trials every day. Yet some people emerge from those events contented, peaceful, and determined to move forward, while others seem to wither away. The only differ-ence is their attitude. In the same way, many people experience won-derful things like a great job, a loving family, and good health, but nothing ever seems to satisfy them; they’re always unhappy—because they choose to be. Charles Swindoll, the highly acclaimed teacher and author, put it this way:

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… I am con-vinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you… We are in charge of our attitudes.1

You have the power to choose your response to any situation. And in that power lies the ability to control your identity, your happiness, and many aspects of your future. You’re in charge of the most power-ful force in your life: your attitude.

You Have the Power to ChooseIf you still doubt that what truly shapes your life is your attitude,

not your circumstances, let me give you a stunning example of the power of attitude that comes from the latter days of the Second World War. You know that the Nazis imprisoned many people in concentra-tion camps, notably a large population of Jewish people, also many people of other races, religions, and political persuasions. These pris-oners faced grueling hardships. Many were slaughtered by their cap-tors, and many others died of disease or starvation. Confinement in a concentration camp was a virtual death sentence.

During the war, a young Jewish psychiatrist from Vienna, Austria, was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp in what’s now the Czech Republic, along with his entire family. Victor Frankl and his wife Tilly were later transported to the infamous Auschwitz concen-tration camp, and finally moved to the Dachau camp system where he spent seven months, mostly working as a slave laborer. Frankl’s mother and brother died at Auschwitz. Tilly was moved to the Bergen-Belsen camp, where she died.

Victor Frankl describes the conditions he and others endured in his book Man’s Search for Meaning. Living amid such suffering and cru-elty, every day a fight for food and survival, never knowing whether they would survive the war, people chose various responses to their circumstances. Some joined in the cruelty, surviving the camps priva-tions by stealing from others or cooperating with their captors. Oth-ers simply gave up and died. But some were able to choose a different



19The Power of Thoughts

path, living with dignity and hope even when that meant sacrificing themselves for others.

After enduring the suffering in these camps, Frankl concluded that even in the most painful, disorienting, and dehumanizing situation, life has meaning.

We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giv-ing 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 the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.2

Interestingly, the original German title of Victor Frankl’s book was Trotzdem Ja Zum Leben Sagen, which means “saying yes to life in spite of everything.” That’s the power you have—to say Yes! no matter what happens. You cannot choose what happens to you, but you can choose how you respond to it. You have the power to adopt a positive outlook, and that power can change virtually everything about your life.

How Negative Thinking Harms YouBefore we go further, it’s important for you to understand what’s at

stake in the matter of choosing a positive attitude. This goes far beyond simplistic outcomes like seeing a glass half empty or half full. When you choose a negative outlook on life, you open yourself to a vast range of negative consequences. Possibly you’re living with some of these results right now, and they’re holding you back from joy, from oppor-tunities, from relationships, or even earning more money.

What’s at stake? Here are a few of the results of living with a nega-tive outlook.

You Feel HelplessNegative thinking traps you in a victim mentality, which is incred-

ibly disempowering. Negative thinkers tend to see other people as in control of the world; as a result, negative thinkers always feel helpless.




Other people always get the raise. Other people always get the opportu-nities. Other people always succeed. Negative thinkers develop a help-less outlook on life that keeps them rooted in place. They never change because they don’t think they can.

Age-old wisdom from the book of Proverbs confirms this point. “The lazy person claims, ‘There’s a lion out there! If I go outside, I might be killed!’”3 If you think the worst in every situation, you’ll prevent yourself from taking any action whatsoever.

You Lack EnergyNegative thinking takes an immediate toll on one of your most

important assets, your energy level. If you’re one of those people whose mood is affected by a lack of sunshine (called seasonal affective disor-der) you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. On cloudy days you just feel kind of blah. Everything else may be fine, but if the sun isn’t shining, you have to fight the urge to lie down and take a nap.

That’s exactly what negative thinking does to you. It brings you down mentally, emotionally, and even physically. When you think negatively, you get a deflated feeling in your stomach. You sigh a lot. You don’t feel like doing much. As a result, you must fight a battle with yourself every morning (and probably throughout the day) to keep your focus and maintain your concentration. Negative thinking saps your strength.

You Suffer Physically and EmotionallyStudy after study has shown the link between optimism and pos-

itive health outcomes and between pessimism and negative health changes. Your mind and body really are connected! While positive thoughts generally fade in time, negative thoughts cling to you like mold on stale bread.

Think about it. Which do you remember more vividly: the time when you made the winning run in your Little League game, or the time you struck out with the bases loaded?

When you welcome negative thinking, it’s like allowing weeds to take root in your mind and body. The effect of living with bad mem-ories, pessimism, cynicism, doubt, anger, and other negative thoughts




can literally kill you. If you’re wondering why you’re down or discour-aged all the time, it may have to do with your outlook on life.

Obviously, clinical depression is something else, a condition that can be medically treated. But if you’re suffering a serious loss of energy, experiencing sadness, and seeing negative health changes—you might need a change in attitude.

You Miss OpportunitiesEveryone is drawn to positive people. You know that from your own

experience at parties, family gatherings, school, or work. It’s more pleas-ant to be around people who smile, say a cheery hello, and pitch in to lend a hand. The opposite is true as well. Nobody likes to be around neg-ative people. When people complain, naysay, criticize others, and con-stantly find fault with their circumstances, friends and coworkers begin to quietly avoid that person. As a result, negative thinkers miss out on new assignments, promotions, partnerships, and other opportunities.

And here’s the real problem: You never know it’s happening! Most negative thinkers are unaware of the effect their mental habits have on themselves, let alone others. If you’re a negative thinker, you may be completely unaware of what you’re missing.

You Limit RelationshipsIf you’re a chronic negative thinker, your attitude is costing you rela-

tionships—something far more valuable than money. As I’ve already noted, people always enjoy being around a positive person, but nobody likes to be around a pessimist. Actually, that’s not quite true. There are people who enjoy the company of a pessimist—other pessimists! Com-plaining, faultfinding, and griping drive away all but the most nega-tive of thinkers. So when you make negative thinking a lifestyle, you limit yourself relationally. You’ll lose friends, and may even lose contact with some family members who simply can’t tolerate continual nega-tive thinking. And again, you may never know this is happening. Neg-ative thinkers seldom perceive the effect of their presence on others.

If you can identify with any of those side effects of negative think-ing, you’re getting a glimpse of just how much a negative attitude can




cost you. It affects everything from your employment to your relation-ships, even your physical health. You’re seeing the truth of it now: Your attitude really does have the power to shape your life.

The good news is that a positive attitude has that same power to an even greater degree. When you adopt a positive attitude, you’ll experi-ence a wide range of beneficial results.

A Positive Attitude Brings Positive ResultsThough the correlation between positive thinking and positive

results has been observed for centuries, sociologist Robert K. Mer-ton formalized the idea when he coined the term self-fulfilling proph-ecy. Merton wrote, “The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true.”4

You’ve experienced this before, no doubt, or seen it in action. A rookie basketball player unexpectedly gets to start in the big game. With seconds left on the clock, he goes to the foul line for what could be the game-winning shot. His knees are trembling, his hands shaking, there’s no way he can possibly calm down enough to sink the basket. So the coach wisely calls a timeout and calls the boy over. Placing a hand on his shoulder, the coach says, “You’ve got this. You’re going to sink the shot and win this game. There’s nobody I’d rather have on the line at this moment than you.” The kid’s face brightens, and he returns to the foul line with newfound confidence. Without hesitation, he shoots, scores, and the game’s over. That’s the power of a self-fulfilling proph-ecy. It takes a once-false definition of a situation and makes it true.

What Robert Merton identified is nothing more than the power of positive thinking. By thinking optimistically, by choosing a positive attitude in every situation, you unleash a power in your life. You influ-ence yourself and others in constructive ways. As a result, you shape your reality by the thoughts you think.

A Positive Attitude Creates a Positive IdentityAn often-repeated story about the great British architect Christo-

pher Wren tells of a time he was supervising the construction of a grand




cathedral in London. A newspaper reporter decided to interview some of the workers who were constructing the magnificent building, and he chose three men to speak with. When he asked, “What are you doing here?” the first man replied, “I’m cutting stone for ten shillings a day.” When he asked the next man, he answered, “I’m putting in ten hours a day on this job.” But the third said, “I’m helping Sir Christopher Wren construct one of London’s greatest cathedrals.”

When you choose a positive attitude, you create a positive identity for yourself. Are you a lackey or a trusted assistant? Are you a beleaguered single mom or a strong, empowered woman? Are you a defeated busi-nessperson who can’t seem to get a break, or are you an energetic, inno-vative entrepreneur closing in on success? The answer is up to you. It lies completely within your power to define your identity. You are what you think you are. And you can become whatever you believe you can be.

A Positive Attitude Improves Your HealthAlso, I’ve already noted the connection between mind and body,

and I’d like to emphasize this again. When you adopt a positive atti-tude toward life, you’ll have a positive impact on your health. But don’t take my word for that. A team of researchers who studied more than 5000 workers concluded that “people with a highly optimistic life ori-entation experience daily events in a more positive way and expect more positive outcomes than pessimists.” They noted, “highly opti-mistic individuals appear to attract supportive social relationships, use adaptive coping strategies, and have different health habits than pessi-mists.” The research suggests that a positive outlook reduces the risk of health problems after experiencing a negative life event, and promotes faster recovery.5 You aren’t imagining it: When you think more posi-tively, you actually do feel better.

A Positive Attitude Creates PossibilitiesI love the story of a man who approached a Little League baseball

game one afternoon and watched the kids playing ball. He asked a boy in one team’s dugout what the score was. “Eighteen to nothing,” the boy said. “They’re winning.”




“Wow,” said the onlooker, “I bet you’re discouraged.”The boy looked mystified. “Why should I be?” he said. “We haven’t

even gotten up to bat yet!”When you believe you’re defeated, you almost certainly will be. But

when you believe that anything is possible, something probably will be. Opportunities come to the person who looks for them, who believes that no situation is hopeless and that some good result is bound to occur. When you adopt a positive outlook, you create your own possibilities.

This was more eloquently declared in a statement widely attributed to the great Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi, who helped lead his coun-try to independence from a century of British rule:

Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.

When you believe in possibilities, you’ll begin to see them every-where. So by adopting a positive outlook, you actually change your future. Things become possible for you that wouldn’t have been other-wise. Your positive thinking shapes your world for the better.

A Positive Attitude Wins FriendsAs researchers in the study noted above point out, optimistic people

attract supporting social networks.6 That’s scientific proof that happy people more easily win friends and influence people, as if we needed proof of that. Intuitively, you know this is true. And it’s vitally impor-tant for creating a positive future, because we all need friends, associates, and teammates in order to achieve our goals and live a happy, produc-tive life. When you adopt a positive attitude, you’ll begin to gather like-minded people around you. You’ll find yourself surrounded by positive thinkers, doers, and high achievers, and they’ll inspire, encour-age, and help you, both with the problems you face in life and with the dreams you hope to fulfill. Adopting a positive attitude is the first step




to building the momentum you need to move into the future you’d like to create for yourself.

Simple Ways to Get StartedClearly, there are a lot of benefits to choosing a positive attitude.

But how do you do that? If you’re like I was during my early years, weighed down by life and a series of negative circumstances, finding a silver lining may seem like wishful thinking. Let me assure you that it isn’t. Here are some practical first steps toward moving yourself from the negative column to a positive outlook.

Recognize Negative ThinkingFirst, recognize negative thinking in yourself. This can be difficult

to do because negative thinking can become the “hard-wiring” in your brain. Without realizing it, you may filter everything you see and hear through this grid of negativity. To help you recognize that, here are two simple things you can do.

First, ask for outside help. Find someone you trust—someone who’ll tell you the truth—to assess your attitude. You may need to give this person permission to be completely candid with you, because they may fear offending or upsetting you. But if you really want to know where negative thinking affects your outlook on life, your think-ing about the future, your relationships, or any other area, you’ll need someone to hold up the mirror, so to speak, and let you see yourself clearly. Find someone you trust and ask them, “Would you say I’m an optimist or a pessimist? Where do you see negative thinking in my life?”

Second, make a searching self-appraisal of your thoughts. This may be easier to do once you’ve gotten some clues to your thinking from an objective friend. You may find it helpful to block out some time for this—an hour or even a whole day. Think specifically about these areas of life:

• your reactions to stressful situations• your tolerance for change• your willingness to take risks




• your feelings about meeting new people• your self-image• your patterns of speech• your first reactions to news or announcements

Briefly write an assessment of your current outlook on life. Note where it’s positive, and be completely honest about the areas in which you’re subject to negative thinking. Don’t try to explain or justify your reactions. Remember, nobody is accusing you of anything, so there’s no need to be defensive about how you feel or how you look at life. Sim-ply state reality. If you’re able to recognize negativity in your thinking, you’ll be able to deal with it. If you’re unwilling or unable to see when and how you think negatively, you won’t ever change.

Resolve to Take ActionWhen Jesus met a man who’d been lame for 38 years, he asked what

would seem to be a ridiculous question: “Do you want to get well?”7 Who wouldn’t want to get well! However, Jesus was probing the man’s thinking to find out how serious he was about dealing with his prob-lem. Jesus wanted to know if he had the resolve to do something about it, or perhaps was content to be helpless. Many people are.

Negative thinking can feel like a warm blanket—safe and familiar. It seems comforting to believe that your life isn’t changing because it can’t or because that’s just the way it is. Those negative thoughts can be all the excuse we need to remain passive.

That’s why making the resolve to change is a necessary first step toward improving your outlook. Do you want to have a positive atti-tude? Resolve to do whatever it takes to make that change.

Practice DisplacementIn part 3 of this book, I’ll give you a simple, practical plan for

renewing your thinking. I’ve also written an entire book on this sub-ject titled ReThink Your Life: A Unique Diet for the Mind. For now, you can begin to shape your outlook by displacing negative thoughts




with positive ones. When you discover yourself defaulting to negative thinking, immediately replace the negative thought with a positive one. Here are some examples.

It’ll probably rain. It might not rain.Nobody ever wins Somebody has to win, those things. why not me?She’ll probably say no. She might say yes!I don’t think I can. I’ll give it a try.

Does that sound simplistic? Let me assure you it’s not. Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones, even in small ways, is a solid first step to transforming your outlook on life. Try it and see.

Get AccountabilityYou can’t do this alone. That’s not negative thinking; it’s just a fact.

Making positive changes in our lives takes a network of support. If you hope to harness the power of a positive attitude in your life, you’ll need a support team. Begin by asking the people closest to you to keep you accountable for changing your attitude. Simply tell them, “I’m trying to change the way I look at life, and I really want to eliminate negative thinking. Please let me know whenever you see or hear a negative atti-tude from me. I’d really appreciate it.” Then be open to their feedback. This, perhaps more than anything else, will help you recognize patterns of negative thought and root them out. Find at least one friend or rela-tive who’ll help you change your future by changing the way you think.

You Can Do This!I really believe you can do this. I know it seems daunting to change

your life from the inside out. You’ve experienced some tremendously negative events in your life, and negative thinking may have become the boilerplate in your brain—it protects you from experiencing fur-ther disappointment. I understand.

Yet I can’t let you stay there. I care too much about you and your future to allow you to wallow in negative thinking. You can do more,




you can have more, you can experience more in your life! If you doubt that, let me remind you of the amazing story of a true American hero, Helen Keller.

Helen Keller was born on June 27, 1880, in the small town of Tus-cumbia, Alabama. Although she was born with ability to see and hear, at 19 months of age she contracted an illness, possibly scarlet fever or meningitis, that left her deaf, mute, and blind. For most people, that would have meant the end of any chance for a productive life. But Helen Keller wasn’t just any person. Helen’s amazing teacher, Anne Sullivan, broke through the near-complete isolation that Helen lived in, teaching her to communicate—a key to forming relationships and experiencing life. Helen Keller grew to become a prolific author and outspoken advocate for a number of causes, including women’s suf-frage and the rights of laborers. To say that she was empowered by a positive attitude would be a complete understatement. Here’s what she said about finding happiness in life:

Most people measure their happiness in terms of physical pleasure and material possession. Could they win some vis-ible goal which they have set on the horizon, how happy they could be! Lacking this gift or that circumstance, they would be miserable. If happiness is to be so measured, I who cannot hear or see have every reason to sit in a cor-ner with folded hands and weep. If I am happy in spite of my deprivations, if my happiness is so deep that it is a faith, so thoughtful that it becomes a philosophy of life—if, in short, I am an optimist, my testimony to the creed of opti-mism is worth hearing. As sinners stand up in a meeting and testify to the goodness of God, so one who is called afflicted may rise up in gladness of conviction and testify to the goodness of life.8

In the early 2000s, when each of the 50 United States selected an emblem to represent that state on a unique edition of the quarter- dollar, Alabama honored one of its most favored citizens by choosing




an image of Helen Keller to place on its state quarter. It’s the only cir-culating US coin to feature braille.

Regardless of the circumstances you now face, you can change your life for the better by changing your outlook. Your attitude has the power to lift your life to new heights or to hold you in despair. Your attitude can win friends, influence people, and be a catalyst for mak-ing your dreams come true, or it can be the governor on the engine of your life, the limiting factor that ensures you’ll never succeed beyond where you are now.

No one else can change your outlook for you. It’s up to you. Make the choice to adopt a positive attitude. Do it for yourself, for your fam-ily, and for your future. Let this be the first day of a beautiful new you.



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