Positive Mental Attitude has been touched upon since the concept of free will, but the concept was first developed and introduced in 1937 by Napoleon Hill in the book Think and Grow Rich. The book never actually uses the term, but develops the importance of positive thinking as a principle to success. He, along with W. Clement Stone, later wrote Success Through a Positive Mental Attitude which defines positive mental attitude as "The right mental attitude... comprised of the 'plus' characteristics symbolized by such words as faith, integrity, hope, optimism, courage, initiative, generosity, tolerance, tact, kindliness and good common sense."
Positive mental attitude (PMA) is the philosophy that having an optimistic disposition in every situation in one's life attracts positive changes and increases achievement. It employs a state of mind that continues to seek, find and execute ways to win, or find a desirable outcome, regardless of the circumstances. It opposes negativity, defeatism and hopelessness.
A positive mental attitude is developed by constant reinforcement of one’s goals, positive values and beliefs. Optimism and hope are vital to the development of PMA. One technique for positive reinforcement is with the use of "self-talk" such as the quote, “I feel happy. I feel healthy. I feel terrific.” A variety of other techniques have been created over the years such as motivational posters, daily devotionals, accountability partners, and cause wristbands. Learning to control one’s emotions is a key part to developing and maintaining PMA so as to expel the negative thoughts and feelings that could influence your actions and behavior.
Read more about Positive Mental Attitude: Psychology and PMA, Self-talk and PMA, Health and PMA, Religion and PMA, Controversy
Famous quotes containing the words mental attitude, positive, mental and/or attitude:
“Scepticism is an ability, or mental attitude, which opposes appearances to judgments in any way whatsoever, with the result that, owing to the equipollence of the objects and reasons thus opposed we are brought firstly to a state of mental suspense and next to a state of “unperturbedness” or quietude.”
—Sextus Empiricus (2nd or 3rd cen., A.d.)
“It is easy and dismally enervating to think of opposition as merely perverse or actually evil—far more invigorating to see it as essential for honing the mind, and as a positive good in itself. For the day that moral issues cease to be fought over is the day the word “human” disappears from the race.”
—Jill Tweedie (b. 1936)
“Doubtless, we are as slow to conceive of Paradise as of Heaven, of a perfect natural as of a perfect spiritual world. We see how past ages have loitered and erred. “Is perhaps our generation free from irrationality and error? Have we perhaps reached now the summit of human wisdom, and need no more to look out for mental or physical improvement?” Undoubtedly, we are never so visionary as to be prepared for what the next hour may bring forth.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“My attitude toward punctuation is that it ought to be as conventional as possible. The game of golf would lose a good deal if croquet mallets and billiard cues were allowed on the putting green. You ought to be able to show that you can do it a good deal better than anyone else with the regular tools before you have a license to bring in your own improvements.”
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961)