Attitude in Life

The attitudes that you choose to carry in life have a major impact on such important consequences as how happy you are, or whether realize your goals. For example, if you choose to persist in life, you will likely one day reach your goal. However, if your attitude is to give up after initial attempts, your path to your goal may be more likely thwarted. Thus, the following advice tries to summarize some of the major attitudes that people should generally try to hold, but are generally neglected by many people. It may not be possible to follow these guidelines all the time, but definitely attitudes to strive to achieve toward.
Don't blame others—learn from your mistakes and any other lessons that your experiences may be handing out to you. Many people have excuses about their lives. They don't do this because of this. They didn't do that because of that. They blame their parents. They blame their teachers. They blame the traffic if they are late. They blame everything and everyone they can—except themselves, of course.
However, they should really be looking at that excuse, and saying, "Hey, I do not need to make up an excuse. I do not need to be late going to this appointment every time. I can solve this problem of being late. I can be on time by writing down in my agenda that I will set my alarm the night before, get up on time with time to spare, and arrive on time, as I had told others." Others may even be astonished at their transformation.
Don't criticize other people or things just for the sake of criticizing. It is a waste of time. If you can change a situation, change it; if you can't, don't complain. Of course, you may want to discuss with a friend the problem you are having. Doing that is perfectly legitimate because it makes you feel better after sharing a problem with someone. Once you have discussed this problem, though, try to move on to more constructive problem solving instead of complaining and criticizing in front of everyone how horrible the boss is, or how you hate the traffic layout in the city. Do something about it instead of complaining. If it serves no purpose, do not complain. Even if it does serve a purpose, such as if you do not like someone playing loud music, you should frankly address the problem with that person instead of complaining. (See the Communication section.)
Some people constantly complain about certain individuals to others. However, this does nothing to solve any problems unless, as mentioned above, you would like this confidant to help you with your problems. Still other people find faults in the most trivial of things. Again, this is an extremely bad habit that must be broken. (See article on changing your own habits—Effecting Internal Change).
Work hard. Perhaps the reason that so many people watch professional sports is that when a team wins, it makes them feel wonderful. During the period of the playing however, the viewer was passive and did not really have to engage in much work or sweat. Thus, it was not hard work. It was easy work, but yet it made them feel so happy if their team wins. However, if you are willing to accomplish hard work, and not easy work, for your own benefit as well as for the benefit of society, all will improve for both yourself and society.
While you work hard, remember to aim for high quality, not perfection. Perfection may be almost impossible. However, performing high quality work, doing the best you can, pushing yourself beyond what you normally assume to be the best, is attainable for everyone. If you enjoy calligraphy, challenge yourself to write even better every time. Put in some more toil. Put in some more time. Slowly, your skills will gradually improve. Your toil and sweat will eventually pay off. Not all of a sudden of course, but through days, months, and years of hard work, you will one day notice, "Wow, I really like that penmanship of mine." And it was not because you tried to perfect your penmanship, but because you tried to make it the very best you possibly could.