A lot of talk is given to inspiration and tips for success, but in my business adventures, I’ve found one thing that trumps everything. If you have this one thing right, then everything turns out great. When you have it wrong, you can almost certainly guarantee failure. So what is this key ingredient to success? It’s a little thing called attitude.

“It is our attitude at the beginning of a difficult task which, more than anything else, will affect It’s successful outcome.” –William James

For me, attitude is everything. If I get up in a funky mood, the rest of my day tends to mirror that funk. When I’m charged and excited about something, the outcome of whatever I’m doing usually reflects that enthusiasm. When I stumble into a case of writer’s block or experience a break in creativity, I can usually trace the source of my lack of inspiration down to my attitude toward the project. In most cases, I’m putting too much pressure on myself to be a creative genius, instead of just “doing it” and working as inspiration hits me. So on a personal note, I know I can change the outcome for anything I’m doing by changing my attitude.

“To be a great champion you must believe you are the best. If you’re not, pretend you are.” –Muhammad Ali

I believe fear is probably the most motivating and demotivating force a person experiences. You either react to avoid a negative outcome, or you do absolutely nothing to keep the possibility of failure at bay. This is where attitude can be a great adversary against the battle of controlling your fears. If you believe in yourself, and if you believe in the outcome of your tasks, you’re taking away the power of your fear. In return, every action you do takes you one step closer to actually being who you believe yourself to be. There’s a reason “fake it ’till you make it” is repeated as a mantra.

“Of all the ‘attitudes’ we can acquire, surely the attitude of gratitude is the most important and by far the most life-changing.” –Zig Ziglar

There’s much written on the topic of positive thinking. In fact, if you are a fan of self-help books, you’ll probably find that the topic has been fairly exhausted. However, what is now getting even more of the attention is the topic of gratitude. Of all the attitudes you can have, an attitude of gratitude is the most powerful. It is the secret behind why positive thinking works. It’s not just enough to hope for good things – you need to be thankful and pay forward the successes and “good things” you experience in your life. When you give from an attitude of thankfulness, your cup can’t help but be overflowing with positivity.

“A healthy attitude is contagious, but don’t wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.” –Anonymous

The personal approach is only one way attitudes are important. I can be in the most amazing mood ever, and have someone be around me who is clearly having a bad day, and the mood rubs off. It may not completely ruin my mood, but it certainly dampens it for the time I’m around the other person. In this regard, I try to remember to keep an open mind and help others by keeping my mood uplifting. The next time you’re feeling the stress or annoyance of something running afoul, keep things in perspective, and realize that a positive outlook will make things work more smoothly and is significantly less toiling emotionally.

There’s no shortage of comparisons you can use to correlate how the relationship between success or failure and your attitude relates. If you’ve found that there are some areas you could improve, try one of these tips for flipping the attitude switch:

• Start your day by writing down three things you will be extremely thankful for.
• End your day by writing down three things you were thankful for.
• Before starting a task, think about what you’re about to do and focus on getting mentally psyched to do great work.
• Feeling down? Force yourself to smile for a few minutes. The physical act of smiling releases endorphins that actually make you happy.
• Need to be super inspired? Be a positivity Nazi and keep negative news at bay for a while. Only let in media or information that will inspire you.
• When you’re feeling bogged down, take a break and go do something just for yourself.
• If someone or something is getting you down, take a few minutes and think up positive thoughts or resolutions for being involved with the person or project.

Remember, at the end of the day you have one freedom no one can ever take away – the power of free thought. You get to choose whether to live happily or depressed. It’s all a question of attitude. What’s yours?

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How much time do you spend reading Twitter updates, Facebook posts or your RSS feeds? How often to you visit your favorite websites or read an inspiring book? All these actions can be extremely beneficial for your self-improvement and business success, however, there can be a downside if you’re not monitoring your exposure.

With so much information easily accessible at our fingertips, it’s easy to reach information overload. This is when you’ve taken in so much information that you’re almost paralyzed from making any forward progress. You have so many ideas or concepts in your head that your mind just gives up in confusion.

Luckily, the solution to this problem is simple. The best way to handle too much information is to output information or ideas. There’s a measurable balance between outflow and inflow. The more you outflow, the more able you are to receive new ideas and inspiration. If you really want to move forward, make sure to take a break from “receiving” good ideas and shift to “giving” them instead.

Some examples of this in action:

• When you read an inspiring book, instead of going straight to the next one, give some time for the ideas to really sink in and then force yourself to “do” something about it.
• If you spend an hour reading Twitter or Facebook updates, spend some time actually posting some yourself.
• If you’re reading articles, engage in the conversation by leaving comments.
• Reading emails daily? Send some out to your subscribers or get caught up with business contacts.

The beauty of this formula is that it works for many other areas of your life besides informational intake. If you’re not experiencing the growth you desire in an area, put more attention on it and find ways to output information or ideas. It’s definitely an application of “you reap what you sow.”

So, how can you benefit from a little outflow today?

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For some reason, I’ve been attracted to a lot of talk about creativity and taking personal time to awaken your inner creativity. Maybe the universe is trying to tell me something. I think this is a good thing.

As bloggers, entrepreneurs and business owners, we’re always pushing out information and then sucking up so much of it to try and grow our business that we often overlook setting aside time to unwind and allow real creativity to sprout. We overlook the fact that we need some downtime to really absorb all that’s going on around us.

Personally, I think it’s crucial to anyone’s success to find tools and habits that allow you to nurture your inner guidance and inspirational system. Think about it – if your mind is cluttered with to-dos: trying to improve sales, dealing with employees, stressing about bills, etc. there isn’t much room left over for inspiring ideas. This is where developing habits for personal inspirational time will help you find your next “big” idea or an amazing solution to a problem you were facing.

You can liken this time to the “Aha!” shower moments. It never fails that my best ideas are always in the shower. Many other successful people, for instance Jack Canfield, co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series, can attest to this “phenomenon” as well. In that moment, your subconscious takes over and your real genius creates amazing ideas.

Now, imagine doing this on purpose in a way that allowed you to nurture the best of your ideas. Over the years, I’ve found there are two essential ingredients to unlocking your best creativity.

#1 – Make Room For New Ideas, aka “The Purge”
In order to receive, you have to make room for new ideas. I do this daily by following Julia Cameron’s tip in the Artist’s Way of writing out three pages of whatever comes to mind. I consider this my daily purge. I used to do this by hand, however, recently I found an awesome online resource that lets me type it out at 750words.com. If you’re a writer, you should definitely check it out.

#2 – Be Available for New Ideas, aka “The Reception”
Just about everyone has heard the expression, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” In our busy times of digesting information, we rarely take the time to actually absorb it and allow this information to foster new creative ways of doing things. We’re getting plenty of water, but we’re not taking the time to drink. In a hyper-competitive world, taking 15 minutes a day of alone time could be the edge you needed to stand out from your competitors. Just find someplace private and peaceful where you can be alone with your thoughts and see what emerges. Don’t use this time to focus on worries, but rather on positive ideals and expressions of gratitude. It’s lot more difficult to create something good when you’re coming from a place of negativity and worry.

Do these two steps everyday, or as often as you can, and you’ll start to notice it’s easier and easier to find your inner inspiration and creativity.

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