Earl Nightingale has a chapter in one of his recordings called "Attitude". I played it to my class a couple of years ago and was very interested hearing the comments it raised amongst a group of 13-year-olds.

But let's start with my cat story. There are three cats now in my house. First there was mine, Coconut, and then two little strays were rescued and added to the pack! Now I'll spare you the details of them getting to know each other, the love-hate relationship finally turned love-love! All is well now and we are a happy family, with everybody getting along very well.

Now, here's the interesting thing. One of the new little kittens, Wildfire, is very friendly and the other one, Caroline, is very shy. Caroline is actually more than shy. She gets very scared at everything and tends to hide a lot. I don't know what happened to her while she was out there, but some people must have been very mean to her.

In the past few weeks, I have seen her gain a lot of confidence and it is much easier for us to approach her. But in reality, she gets a lot less attention than Wildfire. I always try to make a point to go and find her and say hello to Caroline when I come home and good night when I go to bed. Wildfire however, comes to me when I open the door, usually accompanied by Coconut and both will get a hug straight away.

If I have been shopping and I have things to put away I will usually do that first and I may forget to go and say hi to little Caroline. At night, Coconut and Wildfire are usually on the bed or near it, in the same room at least and Caroline stays in another room in her own bed. Poor Caroline misses out on so much! I feel a bit guilty, but isn't this what happens in life? By being stuck in her fears and the idea that she has created in her cute little cat mind that, maybe, people will hurt her, Caroline misses out on the people who love her. It is difficult to translate this to her in cat language and all I can do right now and keep loving her more until she really trusts me 100%.

People, and more importantly, children, tend to react the same way. Kids who get in trouble with a teacher may develop an apprehension with that teacher and clam up. This attitude will cause them to miss out on a good experience in class. With parents, the same can happen. They might once misinterpret something a parent says and change their attitude.

I can't explain all this to little Caroline, but you can do it with your kids. Going towards people is what makes a difference. Your attitude is everything. What you give is what you get! If you smile at people, they'll smile back. If you show willingness, you can get whatever you want.

Don't let one event affect you for the rest of your life. Turn the page, move on and rise above! Don't let other people dictate the person you want to be. If people are unpleasant to you, don't fall for it and keep being nice. You'll always come out of it stronger!