CHOOSE
WISELY
Consider the following story and decide
what attitude reigns in your life.
Jerry is the manager of a restaurant
and he is always in a good mood. When
someone asks him how he is doing, he always replies: “If I were any better, I
would be twins!” The waiters at his restaurant would gladly quit their jobs if
he changed jobs, so they could follow him wherever he landed.
Why? Because Jerry is a natural motivator.
If an employee is having a bad day, Jerry is always there, telling her
how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing this style really made me curious, so
one day I went up to Jerry and said: “I don't get it! No one can be positive all of the time. How do you do it?”
Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake
up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can
choose to be in a bad mood. I always
choose to be in a good mood. Every time
something bad happens, I can choose to be victim or I can choose to learn from
it. I always 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 always choose
the positive side of life.”
“But it’s not always that easy,” I
protested. “Yes it is,” Jerry said. “Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, each situation
is a choice. You choose how you react to
situations. You choose how people affect
your mood. You choose a good mood or bad
mood. It’s your choice how you live your
life!”
Several years later, Jerry
accidentally did something you should never do in the business. He left
the back door of his restaurant wide open.
In the morning, he was robbed by three armed men. As Jerry tried
to open the safe, his hand trembled and slipped off the combination lock. The robbers panicked and shot him.
Fortunately, Jerry was found quickly
and rushed to the hospital. After 18
hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was finally released from
the hospital, but fragments of the bullets were still in his body.
I saw Jerry six months after the
accident. When I asked how he was, he
replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins! Want to see my scars?” I declined to look at his wounds, but did ask
what went through his mind while the robbery took place.
“The first thing that went through
my mind was I should have locked the door,” Jerry replied. “Then, after they shot me and 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” I asked? Jerry continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they rushed me into the Emergency
Room, I saw the expression on the faces of the doctors and nurses and got
really scared. In their eyes, I read ‘He's
a dead man.’ I knew that I needed to
take action.”
“What did you do?” I asked. “Well, there was a big nurse shouting
questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked
if I was allergic to anything.” “Yes, to bullets!” I replied. Over their laughter, I told them: “I choose to
live! Please operate on me as if I am
alive…not dead.”
Jerry did live, thanks to God and the
skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day you have
the choice to either enjoy your life or hate it. The only thing that is truly yours – that no
one can control or take from you – is your attitude,
so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.
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