Attitude is Everything.
Excerpt from Adi’s new book, ADITUDES. In stores on October 31. Pre-order your signed copy today!
Books saved my life.
As a kid growing up through the civil wars in the Former Yugoslavia and faced with uncomfortable and painful feelings of inadequacy, depression, anxiety, and grief, I found myself scouring the pages of hundreds of books in the pursuit of answers. In addition to finding hope and comfort in the words of authors as diverse as Dostoyevski and Twain, Verne and Kafka, Marques and Hesse, Murphy and Mandino, as well as the likes of Rumi, Hafiz, and various spiritual texts, from the Bible and the Quran to the Bhagavad Gita, I also came to two realizations:
First, the Truth is the same even if Sages call it by different names. The One who created you has also created me, and all of our human histories, experiences, and beliefs follow familiar threads and arrive at similar conclusions. Remaining open while seeking to understand uncovers a path of soothing wisdom and a series of lampposts that light the way on how to live a good life — if we choose to. . .
This brings me to my second realization.
The attitude we choose in any given circumstance determines the quality of the life we live. It also determines what may be possible for us in this life.
By the time I turned 17, I had plastered quotes all over my room (along with posters of Ricky Martin and Alicia Keys!), realizing that those tiny bites of wisdom are a great way to keep me on track – inspired and motivated.
But then, I left for the United States: $375 in my pockets, clutching two suitcases, terrified but with a dream in my heart and a belief that what I had learned would translate into a remarkable life.
“You’ll never make it," they said.
“Watch me,” I replied.
A lot of hard work, failures, uncomfortable truths, growth, learning, struggle, resilience, and even a brush with suicidal ideations followed, but today, as I sip my morning coffee at my home in Venice Beach, California, far removed from the strife and war—internal and external alike—and many accomplishments under my belt, I feel deep gratitude for all of my experiences. And I think to myself, “I love my life.”
Amid a deep, dark, cold winter, I found a source of eternal summer within. A home.
My story is an unlikely one, but 25 years after I started on this journey, one of my best friends coined the term: “ADITUDES” — a play on my name and a simple yet concise explanation of how I got here.
This book is the result: a selection of maxims, ideas, and insights that I have clung to over the years to heal, accomplish, grow, and find the courage to create and live a life I love.
The journey isn’t over, however, and these lampposts continue to light the way for me. After all, life is a spiritual practice. There is no point at which we have arrived, perfected it, or can abandon the work. Like a shark, we have to keep moving, or else we sink to the bottom and die.
Thankfully, I love peeling the layers of my proverbial onion because it reveals my most tender parts, every peel ushering a new and improved version of myself.
I hope the same is true for you and that these Aditudes – whether you read them all at once or peruse them one page or one section at a time – will be helpful, inspiring, and even insightful companions on your path of creating and living a life you love.