A bad attitude is like a flat tyre; you won’t get anywhere until you change it. Few things in life are more important than your attitude, and here are four ways you can keep a good one:

1) Realise your attitude needs to be constantly adjusted. Anything you don’t maintain eventually deteriorates. The stronger your natural inclination is towards doubt and negativity, the more you will have to work at it. So begin each day with an attitude check, and throughout the day, look for red flags signalling that you’re not doing so well.

2) Pray because you will need God’s help to maintain a good attitude. The Bible says: ‘Trust in the Lord and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you’ (Psalm 37:3-5 NLT).

3) Look for what’s good, and you will find it. Mother Teresa required two things from those who worked with her in the Calcutta slums: a desire to work, and a joyful attitude. Think: if she could be joyful amongst the dying and destitute, surely you can too!

4) Look for people with faith and spend time with them. Where are they? You will find them soaring above the doubters like eagles. If you’re having a bad day, get close and ‘draft’ behind them the way racers do. If they’re having difficulty, you be the one to get out in front and make things easier. Seven times a day David paused to praise God. Can you imagine what that would do for your attitude?