As a navigational term, attitude refers to the orientation of a craft, an airplane for example, to a particular point of reference, like, say the runway. A bad attitude can mean a crash landing. In it's origins, attitude is connected to the word aptitude, which means "general suitability."
More broadly, attitude is how you go about life. It's the sum total of all you have learned and experienced, coming together to provide the basis for your response to a given situation. It's your angle of approach, your posture, your orientation to a particular point of reference.
Your attitude is a crucial influence on how you experience reality. What you get when you enter a circumstance is almost always a reflection of how you entered, what you brought in with you. Entering a situation is like coming in for a landing. In life as in air travel, a dysfunctional attitude can lead to trouble.
Too often, attitude is involuntary, unconscious. We operate on autopilot. It's bad news if a plane tries to land on autopilot. No less so for people. If we enter into circumstances from a bad direction, we're in for a hard time. Attitude can be very subtle so regular evaluation is very important to understanding why we experience life as we do.
Pilots have instruments for this evaluation, and if they don't use them landing the plane can be tricky. People have instruments, too: the memory, intellect and will. Clutter in these faculties gums up the perspective and causes problems with your angle of approach. Once you're in a difficult spot it's hard to get out, because of the clutter in your instruments. With a distorted attitude you just don't see clearly, you can't perceive the truth, so you can't act accordingly.
The goal is a habitually useful attitude. It doesn't have to be rosy or constantly cheerful. Realistic is much better. But realism has to allow for the miraculous and the extraordinarily positive, or it's not realism. A realistic attitude factors in all possibilities as legitimate and therefore allows you to genuinely apply energy toward positive goals.
An attitude check is a simple choice: how will I address this person? How will I deal with this situation? How will I handle this adversity? When attitude becomes uncontrollable, when you can't adjust it, there is work to do. The application of faith helps clear away fear and fantasy about the future which affect how you meet the present. The application of hope clears out regret, anger or humiliation about the past, which also affect how you engage right now. The application of love starts the ball rolling by firing up the will to make a change in attitude.
The best attitude is the myth mind. With the myth mind, everything becomes a quest, an adventure. You start to set goals with an eagerness about working toward them. The task of clearing the debris from your memory, intellect and will is itself an adventure that requires a mythical understanding. Imagine yourself as an abandoned space ship with monsters lurking onboard. You have to clear out the junk, kill the monsters and take control of the bridge. Do you want to get off the planet of insecurity and negative inner experience and head for more prosperous regions? Then you must decide to undertake the task of taking back your ship, and set about it with a stout heart and a willingness to struggle.
Simplistic but useful.
And with the will cleared of debris, the myth mind can function as the primary navigational tool in life. Myth mind seeks the adventure of the now, and recognizes that the now is always an adventure. Where ever you are, whatever you're doing, you're up to your neck in adventure because you are trying to achieve something, something great, and nothing that happens to you is unconnected from that goal. Getting out of bed is the next thing on the list of items that will land you that perfect job, or that sense of peace. Do it. Do it well because how well you do it determines the outcome of your dreams.
Ever forward.
