“Every one of us has the exact same power within to transform our lives at any moment. Each of us has available to us every single day the exact same magic formula. That magic of which I speak is the overwhelming power of attitude, and it works the same for each and every one of us, regardless of our dreams, regardless of our goals, regardless of our past, our wealth or education. Roger Crawford was born with only one leg and two totally deformed hands. By all rights he should have grown up angry, depressed, helpless and victimized by the circumstances of his birth. Instead, his parents gave him one of the greatest gifts that any parent can bestow upon his or her child - the magic power of a positive attitude. "My parents taught me that I was only as handicapped as I wanted to be," Roger Crawford said. And so he decided that his physical situation was just that, his physical situation - but would not become the determiner of his destiny. By age twelve he had earned a place on his school’s football team. He went on to teach himself tennis so well that he not only played on his college team, but became the first physically challenged tennis player to be certified as a teaching professional by the United States Professional Tennis Association. Now that's the power of attitude to transform failure into success. You may remember the famous story of Glen Cunningham. When as a child he received major burns over the lower half of his body in a tragic accident, he was told he was doomed to be a cripple for life with no use at all of his lower limbs. Instead, he decided that his fate was in his own hands, and with the magic of attitude, and an iron-clad resolve, he went on to stand, then walk, then run, then set the record for the world's fastest mile in Madison Square Garden. Pablo Picasso wrote, “My mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general; if you become a monk, you’ll end up as Pope. Instead, I became a painter and ended up Picasso.” And who wasn't moved to tears and literally awe-struck by the inner strength and sheer heroism of Christopher Reeves riding out in his wheel chair to make a special presentation at the Academy Awards only months after the tragic fall from a horse that left him a quadriplegic? It wasn’t a medical miracle that allowed him to transform his personal tragedy into a source of inspiration for tens of millions of others - it was his mental attitude that gave him the ability to transcend the physical prison of his paralysis to bring light, hope and incredible courage to all of us privileged to witness that moment. Fortunately most of us are not called upon to face such dramatic physical handicaps and challenges. Most of us are blessed with much more ordinary challenges - the challenge of raising children to be moral and ethical, who will do the right thing when facing the inevitable moral dilemmas of life; the challenge of creating loving, nurturing relationships with our life partners, children and friends; and the challenge of bringing a sense of meaning and purpose to our lives. The challenge for each of us every single day is to reflect the gentle wisdom of the wonderful French writer Antoine de Saint Exupery, who wrote "The meaning of things lies not in the things themselves, but in our attitude toward them.” We all know that what one person may consider a wild success, another may experience as the depths of failure. Remember the famous story of the two shoe salesmen who both visited a newly discovered island for the first time, only to discover that everyone there was barefoot. The first salesman cabled his company: "Coming home immediately. No one wears shoes here." The second salesman sent a cable to his company as well. His said: "Send entire new line. Loads of potential customers with no competition!" Attitude is everything, whether in sales, in love or in life. And the beauty of it all, is that it’s at your command twenty- four hours a day, to help you meet every challenge, and to give you inner strength, and inspiration. Every time you consciously choose an attitude that will move you forward toward your goals, you are already half way there. The power of attitude is responsible for more people transforming seeming failures into successes than any other single idea on earth. It has brought dynasties to their knees, turned paupers into princes, inspired millions to fight for causes beyond number, and it can be your secret weapon as you travel the road to your own personal success this year, as well. What greater wisdom can I share, than the self-inspired reflections of Helen Keller, who wrote: “Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.”