“The strongest principle of
growth lies in the human choice.”- George Eliot
One dictionary defines aptitude as “natural tendency or talent; ability.” The
same dictionary defines attitude as” a way of thinking, acting, or feeling.”
I understand this to mean that aptitude enables a person to perform a task while
attitude determines how the person performs the task.
Which is more important?
Of the many things that determine the levels of success and happiness that a
person is able to achieve in life, the foremost is attitude. It is also the one
factor that is most within your control.
What determines your attitude? Your choice. You may have inherited a
predisposition to a certain general attitude towards life from your parents or
your cultural heritage; but you can, by conscious effort, train yourself to
change your attitude. By using your mind, your ability to think, you become a
creator of circumstances rather than a creature of circumstances.
Sometimes, even the differences between life and death can simply be a matter of
attitude. The survival rate of cancer patients (and those with other terminal
illnesses) has proven to often depend on nothing more than their attitude.
Likewise, people who get caught up in disasters often survive because of an
attitude of faith, hope or optimism while people right beside them perish
because of an attitude of hopelessness or negativity.