Read this, and let it really sink in...
Then choose how you start your day tomorrow...
Jerry is the kind of guy you love to hate.
He is always in a good mood
and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask
him
how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better,
I would be
twins!" He was a unique manager because he had several waiters
who had
followed him around from restaurant to restaurant. The reason
the waiters
followed Jerry was because of his attitude. He was a natural
motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the
employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up
to
Jerryand asked him, I don't get it! You can't be a positive person
all of
the time. How do you do it?"Jerry replied, "Each morning
I wake up and say
to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to
be in a good mood or you can
choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood. Each
time
something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or I can choose
to
learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Every time someone comes
to me
complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can
point
out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of
life.
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.
"Yes, it is," Jerry said. "Life is all about choices.
When you cut
away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how
you react to
situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. You choose
to
be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice
how
you live life."
I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter,
I left the restaurant
industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often
thought
about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting
to it.
Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you are
never
supposed to do in a restaurant business: he left the back door
open
one morning and was held up at gunpoint by three armed robbers.
While
trying to open the safe, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped
off the
combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry
was
found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was
released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still
in his
I saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When I asked
him how
he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins.
Wanna see my
scars?" I declined to see his wounds, but did ask him what
had gone through
his mind as the robbery took place. "The first thing that
went through my
mind was that I should have locked the back door," Jerry
replied.
"Then,as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two
choices: I could
choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I
asked.
Jerry continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept
telling me I
was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER and
I saw
the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got
really
scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed
to
take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at
me," said
Jerry. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes,'
I replied.
The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my
reply.
I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Bullets!'
Over their laughter, I
told them, 'I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive,
not
dead'."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because
ofhis
amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have
the
choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.