what is a negative attitude and what is a positive attitude?

Negative attitude – self-defeating.
http://personal-development.com/chuck/negativethinking.htm

Positive attitude – brings optimism.
http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/Definition_Positive_Mental_Attitude.html

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The difference is one of having memory of successfully handling challenges, or not.
The method below will convert negative to positive.

Create Self-Directed Victory
How I dug myself out of frustration.
By Generalist
I kept crashing my life despite my best efforts. My opinions, and those of my friends, and authors, about how to live had failed me, so I began to review them.

The big question was, “How can I stop driving my life on the wrong side?”
At a SGI-USA meeting, I found out that the method to consistently drive on the correct side of happiness had been summarized as Nam Myoho Renge Kyo by the humanist Nichiren. He lived in 13th century Japan. Here is the, “just add hot water” version.
1-No matter how turbulent life seems, there is a continuity. That’s Kyo.
2-Causes produce effects. Sometimes this is not obvious because of time gaps between the cause and the appearance of effects. That’s Renge.
3-Life is both physical and non-physical. That’s Myoho.
4-I needed to organize my mind according to what’s real in order to win. That’s Nam.
I started to recite Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. It took some time to discard my cynicism, even when I got phenomenal results from it. Joining with others at SGI turned out to enhance the effectiveness and gets me a great support group.
Source(s):
My own experiences as a result of reciting the formula and working with friends for peace, culture and happiness
http://www.sgi.org

As things happen to you in life, you can react to them by focusing on the positive or the negative aspects of the experience. If a person is in a race and they come in 2nd. A positive personn might by happy with the results and they will try harder next time. A negative person might be upset with the results and give up trying.