Quick–Do you want to be “right” or do you want to be happy and successful? I will explain what I mean later, yet for now I want to get you thinking about something just as important.

You probably have heard the phrase, the good, the bad and the ugly (great film, too!) so the subject of this article is related to the famous phrase.

The reason for this is because there is good news, bad news and ugly news and it all leads right back to you and you alone.

So if your life is not all you want it to be, we have some good news–you can change it!

If your life seems boring, or awful, we have some great news–you can make dramatic improvements as long as you are willing to do some things correctly.

Ironically, the bad news is that if your life is not all you want it to be or it is horrible, YOU lead yourself to that place. Cheer up because you can make it better starting Now!

You have a lot more power over your life than you realized and so you need to take a close look at your surroundings, your lifestyle, your relationships and ask yourself how happy you are.

Blame and regret are a waste of time, however taking responsibility is like getting the keys to the kingdom! The keys let you open ANY door. You could say they allow you to open the doorways of possibilities for you.

The close cousin of Responsibility is Trust. No one gives you the keys to their car or their telephone number or the job to head a major account unless they TRUST you.

Trust generally comes from someone feeling they can depend on you to do your best, be honest and come through if at all possible. Also, if it is not possible, they feel that you will take responsibility for your actions/lack of actions and be accountable.

Whether your life is AMAZING or total crap, YOU have the ability to change it and make it better!

However, only rarely will someone come along and do things for you. You need to take charge and do what it takes to improve things in your life or be willing to settle for how things are and then stop complaining.

It starts with you!

First it starts with what you think inside of your head and what you say to yourself when you think no one else is listening or paying attention.

What you believe is crucial to any type of happiness and success. Deep belief in yourself and your abilities and skills will fuel your actions towards success.

Half baked beliefs will barely fuel your actions and so you will only get half baked results.

You need to know what you want and realistic paths that will lead you to that place and then continue on that path until you get what you want (while being flexible to changes)

In my experience, the biggest poison addictions to happiness and success are two traps:

TRAP # 1: “knowing about” something (knowing about something that has proven successful for others, yet never applying the knowledge)

or

TRAP #2: “trying” any of these proven methods of success and then getting lousy results and settling for being “right” about not getting the results they “claim” they want and deserve. We have a saying “trying is lying” because it sets yourself up to fail and feel ok about failing.

You probably know the type of person I am talking about—they would rather be able to say “See, I told you it was a scam and it would not work and sure enough, it did not work. I was right!”

So now that you understand what I mean you can ask yourself:

Do you want to be “right” (about not getting successful results because your “special”) or do you want to be happy and successful?

The choice is yours. Pick wisely!

The economy is terrible. Swine flu is everywhere. It is hurricane season. So what is there to be positive about? This is a difficult question to answer sometimes. How do you stay positive when the negatives are all around you? Anyone can be positive when things are going right and you are on top of the World, but how about in the dark days?

Being and staying positive has a lot to do with long term attitudes and core beliefs. Most people who can stay positive in tough times have an attitude of optimism: when all is said and done, the World is a decent place and most people are pretty decent. This is optimism. On the other hand, people with a pessimistic attitude can even turn Christmas into a downer. Nothing can make them happy. Positive and optimistic people can stay the course and come through tragedy after tragedy and still look at the world as a relatively good place.

Where does this strength come from? Some have argued, and genetic research tends to back them up, that we are born this way. Recent genetic research has identified “happy” genes indicating that some people are naturally happy and optimistic while others are “Debbie Downers” (i.e. negative people).

Psychologists will argue that a person’s World-view is shaped by their environment and experiences (which form our attitudes). Attitude is the screen or filter through which we interpret the world. For example, consider that a baby is born. One person looks at the event as a blessing from God and is filled with joy while another person greets the child with anger and despair since it’s another mouth to feed. The event was the same; a baby was born. However the event’s value and interpretation depended on the observer’s personal attitude.

So, why bother being positive? One main reason is that things change and eventually something good will happen. You cannot get any enjoyment out of life, good times or bad, if you do not stay positive.