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In his book, The Winning Attitude, author John Maxwell discusses how a proper attitude can lead to success in life. Maxwell explains how attitudes are formed over time and how they impact everything we do. Understanding how your perspective of the world around you is formed gives you the opportunity to direct that development.

According to Maxwell, a person’s attitude will be more likely to determine their level of success than their education, wealth, or position. A good attitude will allow an individual to overcome obstacles such as poverty, illiteracy, or disability to accomplish great things. In contrast, a bad attitude will lead someone to squander such advantages as a good education, strong family life, and personal wealth.

Maxwell offers these five keys to the development of a person’s attitude:

 • Children’s formative years are the most important for instilling the right attitudes, and children whose early development is in a positive setting have a significant advantage. According to Maxwell, attitudes we accept as children usually remain with us as adults.

 • An attitude’s growth never stops. Despite the impact of our early years, there is no such thing as an unalterable attitude. We are consistently forming, changing, and reinforcing attitudes through our entire lives.

 • The more our attitude grows on the same foundation, the more solid it becomes. Reinforcement of good or bad attitudes makes them stronger. You can choose to reinforce good or bad attitudes.

 • Many builders (specialists) help construct our attitudes at a certain time and place. The people in our lives at any given point in time will impact our attitudes.

 • There is no such thing as a perfect, flawless attitude. Our attitudes need constant adjustment and attention. The secret to a successful life is to continually adjust your attitude when life throws you challenges.

It is important to understand that our attitudes do not remain stagnant. Maxwell encourages readers to identify those things that could lead to a poor attitude and to create a strategy to counter that attitude. If you feel your attitude has not been as positive as it should be, it’s not late to learn how to maintain a healthy and productive attitude, despite your circumstances.