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John 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 natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, John
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 and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be
a positive person all of the time. How
do you do it?"
He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to
myself, 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,"
he 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 affect your mood.
You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood.
The
bottom line: It's your choice how you
live your life."
I reflected on what he said.
Soon hereafter, I left
the Tower 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 he was involved in a
serious accident, falling
some 60 feet from a
communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery
and weeks of intensive care, he was released from
the
hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw him 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 I
did ask him
what had gone through his mind as the
accident took place.
"The first thing that went through my
mind was the
well - being of my soon - to - be born daughter," he
replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, 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.
He 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 John.
"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,
'Gravity'."
Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to
live. Operate on me as if
I am alive, not dead."
He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also
because of his amazing attitude ....
I learned from
him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.
Therefore
do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has
enough trouble of its own.
After
all today is the tomorrow you worried about
yesterday.
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