On Altering Attitudes

There is a profound thought in these words of William James: “The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”

This is one of the great discoveries of any generation⎯or of any individual⎯and in one sense it is simply a restatement of the principle of repentance. There are times when most of us have need to alter our attitudes. There are times when the stubborn set of a mind or of a heart will drive people apart when they should come closer⎯and when without some honest change of attitude there would be little possibility of improvement.

Sometimes misunderstandings settle into stalemated situations because neither party will change the set of his jaw, the set of his heart, the set of his thoughts⎯because neither will alter his attitude. Granted that there may be grievances (and remembering also that no one is perfect), there still must be some honest altering of attitudes, some giving by someone in some degree if resentments are ever to be resolved, if personal relationships between estranged people are ever to be improved.

A person may sincerely feel that it is not his place to make the first move. He may feel that it is not his place to go halfway⎯or any part of the way. He may sincerely feel that the fault lies wholly somewhere outside himself. But someone has to move. Someone, sometimes, has to break the heartbreaking deadlocks of opposing personalities if they are ever again to be compatible. Someone has to do something if what shouldn’t be is ever to be as it should be. Someone must make some move if misunderstandings are not forever to remain.

To repeat the words of William James: “…human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes…” Where something should be done, let false pride be pushed aside; let people who should not be apart move toward one another; let repentance enter the picture; let men make the most of life by honestly altering false attitudes.