Most of us have heard about the idea of maintaining a “positive attitude” in order to have success in any part of our lives, whether it is financial, relationships, physical fitness or self improvement goals. I first really became aware of the ability to learn how to consciously change an attitude and then use techniques to make new desirous attitudes a habit through Brian Tracy’s Maximum Achievement Program.

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Recently, there seems to be some debate on the importance of “positive attitudes” in attaining goals and success. Recently, somewhere I was reading about a study that seemed to indicate that having a “positive attitude” was not really a prerequisite at all for success and achievement. I apologize that I do not have a link or can directly refer to the study, but it seemed the point it was making was that good old determination was more important than any kind of positive thinking or positive attitudes that many of us have been told is so important.

I suppose it may be true that perhaps determination is what is most important - I don’t know if a wolf, determined to hunt its prey so it can eat and survive another day gives much thought to “positive attitudes.” However, humans do have the ability to qualitatively think about attitudes and we use concepts such as “positive,” “negative,” and neutral to describe the quality of those attitudes.

So let’s assume for a moment that having a “positive attitude” is not necessary to win a gold medal in the Olympics, and indeed, having a “positive attitude” alone of course is not going to be good enough to win any medal, let alone the gold one. But what do you want for your own internal state of happiness? Is winning the gold medal going to make you happy if you win it? It may - but it will be a fleeting happiness that you’ll definitely lose - the next moment some bit of difficulty comes along.

Personally, I’d prefer to hold positive attitudes, which seem to motivate an inner contentedness (not to be confused with a lack of desire for improvement) no matter what is going on in one’s life. That inner contentedness - the ability to be able to move through difficulties - is a skill that anyone can learn, and I’d think that most folk would prefer to have that than constant negativity in their thoughts regardless of their determination to accomplish something.

The problem it seems is that most people don’t realize they can control and take responsibility for their own thoughts. They can choose their thoughts. They can resolve to observe their thoughts and then consciously choose to hold other thoughts that will also motivate themselves to feel better. And when you feel better, you can work better, and you can work through issues better - with more positive results - results you want.

Is positive thinking necessary for success? Probably not necessary - but certainly if you hold any qualitative ideas about life, and prefer what you think of as “positive” over “negative,” then making it a practice to observe and know your thoughts, question them, and resolve to hold thoughts you find positive will help you succeed in your relationship with yourself.

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