Jonathan Mohr

A positive attitude: the choice is ours

John Maxwell shares a very interesting story about his father, Melvin Maxwell. The senior Maxwell grew up Georgetown, Ohio, a small community not far from Dayton. As a young man, Melvin Maxwell noticed there were three citizens in Georgetown who were much more successful than the rest. Most of the community was, in John Maxwell’s words, “average.”

While in high school, Melvin Maxwell had the opportunity to perform chores for each of these three prominent Georgetown personalities. In the process, he noticed that one important characteristic separated them from the rest of the pack: all three had a positive attitude.

“How they thought was the greatest separator between their success and the rest of us who were kind of average or a little bit below average,” the older Maxwell told his famous son.

Melvin Maxwell also admitted that, at that point, he naturally had a negative, cynical bent in his own attitude. But upon seeing the positive impact that a good attitude had on the success of these three Georgetown residents, he said, “That was the day I made a choice.”

“I determined to go against what would be natural for me or easy for me, and I determined to have a good attitude,” Maxwell told his son. “From that point on, I felt that the attitude is the most important thing that I can work on in my life.”

John Maxwell relates that, throughout his life, he has always admired his father’s positive attitude. But that positive attitude wasn’t a byproduct of Melvin Maxwell’s personality: it was a choice he made as a young man.

If there is one choice we can make this year that will change our lives, it is the choice to change our attitude.

For more on attitude, click here to watch a great interview between John Maxwell and Joyce Meyer.

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