Attitude is everything.

Attitude is everything. You’ve undoubtedly heard the saying. What exactly does it mean?

Make the best of every situation. Things are never as bad as we think. Of course, we are inundated during this political season with candidates telling us how bad we have it.

Do we really have it that bad? We live in the most wealthy country in the world. We have freedoms that are the envy of others throughout the world. We are not involved in any ground wars that sap us of our military personnel. And yet we have politicians telling us how bad things are in this country and too many buy into negativity.

When is the last time you heard a politician say, “Our country is great. I will make it greater by doing x, y and z?” Instead, they convince those of us who are negative how bad we have it.

I have a friend who lives in Southern California. Her disposition is as sunny as the weather typical of that area.

She was out shopping one day. When she returned the entire front end of her 7-year-old Mercedes Benz was gone. Instead of moaning about crime or how bad things are, she wrote this or something to the affect of it on her Facebook page.

“To the individual who took what belonged to me, I want to thank you because you made me realize how lucky I am to be able to be able to afford to drive a nice car and live in one of the nicest areas in the country.”

Talk about making the best of a bad situation. How many people do you know who would respond that way? To know this woman is to really like her, or to be envious. She is attractive but her inner beauty exceeds what people who don’t know her see on the outside.

She doesn’t believe that this country is “going to h— in a hand basket.” Neither do I. What I have exceeds everything I don’t have.

I am able to run every day and have done so for more than 30 years uninterrupted. That says my health allows me freedoms that I will never take for granted.

So when others (politicians) tell you how bad off you are, don’t believe it. Go out for a run or do something physical (or mental) that will make you proud of yourself.

Remember, attitude is everything.