One of the keys to success is to maintain a positive mental attitude. Napoleon Hill in his book “Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude” discusses the benefits of a positive mental attitude.

You will attract other people who can help you on your quest. You will be able to use your time more productively – minor problems and upsets won’t get in your way and major problems will be solved more quickly and with less effort. Most importantly a positive, can do attitude attracts success.

The challenge you face, like so many other people, is how to maintain a positive attitude. I want to talk about a powerful tool that can help you to choose your attitude. I have tried it and I can vouch for its effectiveness.

Draw the line – a simple rule to maintain a can do attitude

Take a clean sheet of paper. Draw a line on it half way down the page. Now on the top half of the page write in capital letters one below the other O, A, R. On the bottom half of the page write B,E, D one below the other, in capital letters.

Take this piece of paper and fix is somewhere prominently, somewhere you are going to see it every day, where you can use it to remind you.

All you have to do now is remember “Stay above the line at all times”. Whenever you feel your attitude wavering, whenever things seem to be on top of you remember “Stay above the line”.

How does this help you maintain a positive attitude?

What does this all mean?

Here’s the explanation – above the line you’ve written the first letter of the three words “Ownership, Accountability, Responsibility”. Below the line you’ve written the first letter of the three words “Blame, Excuses, Denial”.

Three of the things that prevent you from maintaining a positive attitude are those three things below the line. You blame other people, your surroundings, the government, the dog… for all the bad thing that are happening. Your attitude suffers as a result. You make excuses for not solving your problems – letting yourself off the hook. The final demon is denial – denying that anything is wrong with you and your attitude.

On the other hand, if you have a positive, can do attitude, you are going to find yourself playing above the line.

You’ll replace blame with ownership – “I can solve this problem”, you’ll replace excuses with accountability – “it’s down to me” and you’ll replace denial with responsibility. Success will come to you through your positive mental attitude. You will influence yourself and people around you to achieve more and have more fun on the way.

Success is strongly linked to maintaining a positive mental attitude. To maintain a positive, can do attitude, you should remember the rule “Stay above the line, use your OARs to row your boat”. In contrast, when you are below the line you’ve made your BED and you are going to have to lie in it!