Attitude Is everything Summary by Jeff Keller

Summary of Jeff Keller’s book, Attitude Is Everything, is divided into 3 Parts. The first part, Success Begins in The Mind, is about how your beliefs in mind reflect your attitude & your life can change by changing your thoughts. In the second part, Watch Your Words, you will learn how your attitude is reflected in your words & how positive language can bring you closer to your goals. Part three, Heaven Helps those who Act is about action steps you need to take to turn your dreams into reality.

Summary of Author Jeff Keller’s Story- How Author Realized Attitude is Everything

Author Jeff Keller as a Lawyer, was unsatisfied with his job & his life. Frustrated Jeff, One night by accident, came across one TV advertisement of the course called The Mental Blank, which was about how everything we achieve based on our subconscious beliefs. The author bought this program & the first time he was coming across the subconscious mind & beliefs.

This course inspired Jeff to read books by Napoleon Hill, Og Mandino, Norman Vincent. He started shifting his negative attitude to a positive attitude.

He started his research about attitude through books, audio programs. 4 years later, he quit his job as a lawyer & became a motivational speaker talking about how attitude can transform life.

Changing attitude brings the author everything he wants & he believes it can bring you whatever you want if you change your attitude to a positive one.

Part 1: Success begins in the mind

Lesson 1- Your Attitude is your Window to the World

Sara walked into the coffee shop for lunch. She arrived at the office with a pleasant smile on her face. Her body language reflected her optimism.

Few Minutes Later, Sam came into the coffee shop for lunch & sat down a few feet away from Sara. He was looking tense. His body language cried out, “Stay away from me!”

The waitress in The Coffee Shop was taking the same time to take the order. She is taking the same time to serve a meal & deliver the check at the same time. Still, Sam was frustrated with the waitresses.

Sara had a good conversation with the waitresses & went back to work with a rechanged battery.

While Sam annoyed the waitress when she didn’t take his order immediately. He complained about the food & was furious when he didn’t get his check right away.

Both of them were treated the same, then why did Sara & Sam have different experiences in the coffee shop?

Sara sees the world with a positive attitude & Sam sees the world with a Negative Attitude!

Definition of Attitude

Your attitude is the mental filter through which you see & experience the world. Some people see the world through optimism, while some see the world through pessimism. Here are a few examples-

• The person with a negative attitude thinks, “I CAN’T.”
• The person with a positive attitude thinks, “I CAN.”
• The person with a negative attitude dwells on the problems.
• A person with a negative attitude focuses on solutions.

Everyone Starts with a Clear Mental Window

We all start our life with a positive attitude. Consider the attitude of a child. When a child falls while trying to walk he doesn’t cry out or stumble upon or give up walking. He tried again with a smile on his face.

As we grow, our Mental window gets dirty. It happens because-

• Criticism from parents & teachers
• Rejection
• Disappointments
• doubt

This dirt keeps building on & most people don’t do anything about it. They don’t see new possibilities & they give up on their dreams.

Wash your Window

No matter how much dirt is on your mental window, you can always start cleaning it. When the author removed the dirt from his window he started seeing new opportunities. He shifted his career from lawyer to Motivational speaker.

Are you beginning to see those areas where your window needs to be washed?

You Control Your Attitude

You must keep your window clean. You always have a choice. Even if you think you have problems that no one has & it’s tough for you to change your attitude. Here is a fantastic example from Viktor K Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning Summary:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. …Even though conditions such as lack of sleep, insufficient food, and various mental stresses may suggest that the inmates were bound to react in certain ways, in the final analysis, it becomes clear that the sort of person the prisoner became was the result of an inner decision and not the result of camp influences alone.”

If Viktor Frankl can control his attitude in the concentration camp & get out of the camp, then it proves that you can always control your attitude!

Attitude and Success

Will Attitude alone lead you to success? No, it won’t…… Because there is more to success than just a positive attitude. But without a positive attitude, you can’t take positive actions. It’s only when you clean your mental window Your success in life begins & ends with a positive attitude.

Lesson 2 – you are a Human Magnet

Earl Nightingale, the great success writer, put the key to success in just six words. Here are those words-
WE BECOME WHAT WE THINK ABOUT.

If your goal is to earn $100000, you will earn it if you believe you can earn it. You will attract the set of circumstances that will move you closer to your goal.

But this doesn’t mean you will think positively for a few minutes & doubt your ability for the remaining waking hours. It has to be your Dominant Thought. You are continually moving towards your dominant thoughts. Positive thoughts bring positive results & negative thoughts bring negative results.

Positive thinking will not bring you overnight success. And secondly, positive thinking doesn’t mean you will not have any more problems. You will have setbacks & problems, but if you believe yourself, you will overcome them.

So, choose your thoughts wisely!

Lesson 3- Picture your way to success

Let’s do an experiment. Think about your favorite ice cream. Does the picture come to your mind? It does. Now think about pink elephants. In a fraction of a second, your mind will create the image.

The same thing you can do to achieve your goals. Many athletes, singers imagine their success & they see it every day & achieve it.

We are continually running pictures in our minds. When you come across a fearful situation in your office, you create the same mental picture you created in the school when you were a child & came across the same fearful situation.

You can’t control your past movies, but you can always change the interpretation of it. Let say the teacher had criticized you for not being good enough. You have grown big but carry the same picture & feel the unworthiness when someone disagrees with you.

You can’t change your old movies, but you can change the meaning of them & see the situation differently. For example- the teacher may have disagreed with you, but it wasn’t a statement about your overall worth.

Create a new mental picture

Start creating new mental pictures. If you fear public speaking, imagine you are speaking on stage confidently, speaking fearlessly, the audience is laughing at your jokes, etc. When you imagine yourself acting the way you want to be in the future & repeat it every day, you will start acting in ways that support your vision.

Lesson 4- Make a commitment & you will Move Mountains

Commitment is not just trying hard or making lots of attempts. According to Mike Hernacki, the author of the book The ultimate secret to Getting Absolutely Everything, commitment is “willingness to do whatever it takes” to achieve your objective.

If it takes 5 steps to reach my goal, I will take those 5 steps;
If it takes 55 steps to reach my goal, I will take those 55 steps;
If it takes 555 steps to reach my goal, I will take those 555 steps.

Are you willing to take whatever it takes to reach your goal?

Lesson 5- Turn your Problems into Opportunities

When you encounter problems or setbacks in life, your natural reaction will be like getting frustrated or disappointed. But after the initial disappointment, you have a choice to make. You can either dwell in the past or find the opportunity that your problem is offering.

How Adversity Serves Us

Without a problem, you will never find a solution. Adversity encourages you to take action. It makes you grateful & opens a new door for you. After surviving in a difficult situation, you become emotionally stronger.

Look for the positive.

You will always come across problems & adversities in life. But every difficulty carries an opportunity. You just have to look for it.

Lesson 6- Your Words Blaze a Trail

When was the last time you thought about the words you used? You might think why you are talking about words? What’s the big deal? Your words have great power. They can make your future bright or ugly.

The process is like this:- Thoughts-Words-beliefs- Actions- Results

Here’s how it work- Tom has a thought- I’m not good at sales call. He repeat these words often with his friends or himself which becomes his beliefs. As Tom doesn’t belief in his sales ability he took little action or doesn’t do things that are required & fails at sales.

Don’t underestimate the role of your words. If tom replace his negative words with positive, the end result will change.

Words and Emotions

Let say you react to a situation by saying “Angry” or “Upset”. If, however you use the words “Furious” or “enraged”, your emotions change, your blood pressure would rise, you feel tense all over.

You Have a Choice

If we tell lies 100 times it becomes the truth. Same way, you can change your beliefs by consciously choosing the words you use. While it takes some discipline but your beliefs and words will encourage you to take action that aligns with your goals.

Lesson 7- How are you?

Our answer to a small question: how are you? Seems a small thing. But, when we answer this question 10 times a day, it makes a significant impact. Every time we answer this question shows our attitude.

There are three types of responses to this question- negative responses, mediocre responses, positive responses.

Negative Responses

“I’m tired”
“Terrible”
“Lousy”

Mediocre Responses

“I’m Okay!”
“Fine”
“Not too bad”

Positive Responses

“I’m Terrific!”
“I’m on top of the world.”
“Great”

Next time if someone asks you, how are you? Respond with enthusiasm & positivity no matter how you are feeling at the time. Try this experiment for a month & you will naturally feel positive.

Lesson 8- Stop Complaining

Complaining work against you in three ways. First, no one wants to hear negative news or your illness & problems from you. Second, it reinforces your own pain & discomfort. Third, complaining diverts you from taking positive action to improve your situation.

It’s been said that 90 percent of people don’t care about your problems….and the other 10 percent of people are glad you have them!

Every time you start complaining, grab a notebook & write down things you are grateful for. You will become less complainer.

Part 2: Heaven Helps Those Who Act

Lesson 9: Associate with Positive People

You become like person whom you hang with. you have experienced that negative people in your life drain the energy within you.

I’m sure it has happened to you many times. You hear a song and you say yourself “what a ridiculous song”. And when you listen the same song repeatively, you fall in love with same song.

Here’s an important lesson: Our mind dwells upon whatever is repeated over and over again & it can’t figure differentiate between a positive message and a negative message.

So, associate with positive people. You will feel better and energetic to achieve your goals.

Lesson 10: Confront Your Fears and Grow

I was listening to a motivational speaker & that one sentence changed my life. “If you want to be successful, you must be willing to be uncomfortable.”

This sounds simple, doesn’t it? And yet, when people face a frightening situation, many back away from fears.

We always love to stay in our comfort zone. Everyone wants to be in a comfort zone. Even people who achieve great success loves to be in the comfort zone. Despite this fact, they embrace their uncomfortable emotions & are the ones who develop their full potential.

To achieve your goals and realize your full potential, you must be willing to be uncomfortable.

Lesson 11: Get Out There and Fail

Remember when you were learning to ride a bicycle. Initially, keeping your balance was difficult. You struggled to stay upright, maybe even falling a few times and scraping yourself. Eventually, after some failed attempts, you learn to ride a bicycle & after a few practices, you become good at it.

Six-year-old learning to ride a bicycle was optimistic…thrilled…and eager to meet the challenge.

Now let’s examine how adults approach the development of new skills. Would you say they are thrilled…optimistic about meeting the new challenge? The answer is “NO”.

When you ask adults to learn new skills, softwares, programs, most are unwilling to learn. Because they are afraid of failure.

Successful people learned to fail their way to success. They recognize failure is an important part of the road to victory.

Lesson 12: Networking That Gets Results

In 1992, Jeff Keller met Stu, a contributing writer with “think and grow rich newsletter.” At Stu’s suggestion, the newsletter ran a cover story about the author- how Jeff Keller went from a lawyer to a motivational speaker.

Later, the author agreed with the company that they will sell the ‘attitude is everything’ merchandise through their publication. Thousands of items were sold. Also, Jeff Keller got several readers & calls for speaking engagements.

This all happened because the author came into the network of Stu.

The Benefits of Networking

While your success starts with you, it grows to higher levels as a result of your networks. Here are some of the benefits of networking.

For the business-

• Generates new clients and business leads
• Increase employment opportunities
• Helps in finding the right people to fill critical positions
• Provides valuable resources and information
• Assists in solving problems

In the personal realm-

• Enhance your social relationship
• Help you to become familiarize with people of various culture & will expand your mind

Now you know the benefits of networking. Start building the army troops that will help you grow.

Now you know the benefits of networking, let’s talk about how you can enhance your network’s effectiveness.

Conclusion: Change Your Attitude and Change Your Life

Our life is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. The reaction depends on your attitude. So change your attitude and change your life.

With this, we come to the end of Jeff Keller’s attitude is everything summary. I learned a lot from this book about attitude. Let me know how this book helped you. I would highly recommend you buy this book because you will find a lot of uncovered wisdom.