Check Your Attitude!

ATTITUDE - what a profound difference it can make in our lives. The word was drummed into me daily as a young military pilot: Attitude! Attitude! Attitude! My instructor did not mean mental attitude, although that also came up now and then. He meant the nose attitude of the aircraft.

Each flying manoeuvre and configuration requires a specific speed, determined by how much the nose of the aircraft is pointing above or below the horizon. This is called the nose attitude of the aircraft. If you keep your attention on maintaining the appropriate nose attitude, the speed will automatically come right. Because of a delay in the airspeed dial settling at the correct indication, if you try to set your speed by watching the dial you often end up chasing the needle back and forth. Then you wallow across the sky like a flying dolphin!

Communications, psychology and personal growth have some amusing parallels to flying. Over the years I have seen how attitudes towards people and situations affect our lives. People's nose attitudes indicate their state of mind: from the extremes of walking with heads bowed to holding their noses high in the air. Our attitudes are important. If I believe that other people's opinions are more valid than what my heart tells me, it causes uncertainty, self-doubt and a kind of mental sea-sickness. It reminds me of "dolphining" across the sky as a pupil pilot.

To change our habits requires a change in attitude. And yet attitude is just a matter of thought. Education and experience can soon change our beliefs if we are open minded and keen to progress in the schoolroom of life. If you have to do some house cleaning and you reckon it's a pain in the neck, then you'll likely have a lousy time doing it. A friend of mine just accepts the task as one of the things that need doing and actually loves doing it, even though she is just as busy as I am. And she does a much better job than I do!

If your attitude towards friends is that they will stick with you only as long as they can't see your bad side, then you're likely to get stressed out trying to hide your "bad" qualities. And if you make a mistake or hurt their feelings by being honest, they might leave you, which can be scary. But not so scary if you ask yourself whether that fair-weather friend was really worthwhile. Plus, if you hold a more understanding and accepting attitude towards them, they will feel more comfortable around you, and may be more accepting of you as well. Like attracts like. Always be yourself. Sincerity attracts true friends. This very attitude changes the way we act. It attracts better friends into our lives.

How about evolution? If your attitude is that you are on earth purely by evolving from animals, and that your one shot at life works only by the survival of the fittest, then unless you are a cross between Charles Atlas and Rambo, you are liable to have quite a stressful life. Especially compared to one who believes that they are an immortal spirit using this temporary body to learn lessons and fulfill a mission on earth that is unfolding with cosmic order. Just as an aside, if there is no ultimate proof that the later is wrong or impossible, it might be worth trying out. If it turns out to be true, and you took the animal evolution option instead, you would have missed a big boat!

Here's another one. Much of our entertainment is taken up with the good guys versus thebad guys. If my attitude is that evil is just the temporary effect of a lack of Light or high frequency in that area, then my attitude towards it can remain positive and confident. Dark thoughts and feelings, including fear, lower our frequency, therefore attracting that which we fear, as like attracts like.

So check your horizon, check your attitude, then check your airspeed. Know the difference between angels and bandits. Adjust your attitude. Like my nose attitude, when I set it properly, my desired airspeed settles down quickly, instead of chasing the needle. It makes my flight path look less like a dolphin across the horizon, and prevents my instructor shouting: "Check your attitude!"