Attitudes and Aptitudes

Have an aptitude for the thing you do, and have an attitude of respect or reverence toward it.

Some people learn the motions of their work without ever bothering to study the meaning of those motions; such are doubtless working without an aptitude for the great failures are the persons who, having an aptitude for their work, have the wrong attitude. They do a poor job, knowing it to be poor, but they lack respect for their own handiwork, and have so little thought for their fellow beings, that they are willing to waste their time doing something worthless.

In medieval times people approached work with prayer. Whether it was ultimately viewed by the many or the few, it was all, no matter how it might be hidden, seen by God; and it was done primarily for God.

When we were knee-high to grasshoppers we were taught: "What is worth at all is worth doing well." All else is waste.
- Boston Herald

Attitude

We create our reality through our perceptions and our way of being. I found a text which reflects perfectly what I believe about that. This is really what I experiment every day.

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than success, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, gift, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home.

The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable.

The only thing we can do is play on the string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes."
- Charles Swindoll

Not Knowledge, But Aptitude

It isn’t what a man knows that matters, but how near to a straight line he can drive the processes of his mind; how near to a lean and useful muscle he can make that mind; how near he can come to lassoing a truth or method. No man should be judged by what he doesn’t know; he should be judged only by how quickly and sensibly he assumes new duties.
- Struthers Burt