The Power of an Impressive GPA

Running alone is never my first choice. I love to meet up with friends and spend time running together. But there are those days when I have to run alone, and while I never look forward to it, I typically have peacefully profound experiences. Today was one of those days. I started my 5 mile loop while listening to a church sermon and very quickly became inspired and drawn into prayer. As I prayed over my family, the health of my friends, and the growth of my business, God kept placing the same word at the forefront of my mind. 

ATTITUDE. ATTITUDE. ATTITUDE. 

Over and over again this word came to me. This word has so much meaning on an everyday basis, but especially so during this year. We can go through any possible sequence of events in the universe, but the way we experience it is determined by our attitude. 

As I reflected on the power of attitude during my solitary run, something else was placed on my heart and mind. It was a talk given by a good friend of mine, Bruce Hamsher. Bruce and I have collaborated several times on serving high school students with personal development training. These are students who have been stand out leaders with goals of getting into certain colleges, landing internships, or beginning their careers. Bruce handles all the interviewing for a major company in our local area, so he has all kinds of insight into what makes a person stand out amongst a crowd. One of the topics he provides insight on is the importance of a good GPA. 

Put yourself in the shoes of a high school, or even a college student. These kids are grinding for awesome test scores, solid grade point averages, and impressive work or volunteer experience. They’re doing so because they’ve been conditioned to believe this is what makes them stand out. But when Bruce coaches on the importance of GPA, he’s doing so using his own definition of the acronym. 

GPA= GREAT POSITIVE ATTITUDE

Anyone can force themselves to work hard. Anyone can push themselves to perform and to perform well. Anyone can develop discipline in their work or education. You know what’s truly harder than all of that? Maintaining a positive attitude. Sure it’s easy to be positive when life is going well, but what about when there’s a global pandemic that puts the world on lockdown for months on end? Take a 30 second scroll through Facebook right now and you’ll see that the majority of people respond to adversity with negativity. They might be great at their jobs, but they’re not great at being in control of their attitude. 

So when you’re in a crowd of high performers, how do you stick out? People like Bruce won’t only notice your attitude, they are actively looking to observe your attitude. They know how rare it is for a person to be positive when faced with obstacles. They want to find someone with a GREAT POSITIVE ATTITUDE. 

But more than just changing your attitude to impress someone like Bruce, change your attitude to get more out of your life. Again, take a quick scroll through Facebook to see how unhappy people are when they live in negativity. People who live with a positive attitude on the other hand are not going to be knocked down by anything. They know that nothing is promised, and nothing external can be controlled. So why not control and make enjoyable the one thing you have power over? YOUR ATTITUDE. When you control your attitude, you directly control the level of happiness you get to experience in your life. 

Time to level up your GPA!