Hey peoples.....well this story was forwarded to me in an email from a friend. I liked it so much, I'm puttin' up here on my web page. I kinda try and live my life like this.....So read on.
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 Jerry and asked him, I don't get
it! You can't be a positive person all 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 effect 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 the 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 body.
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 thefloor, 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 deadman'.
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 of
his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice
to livefully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
K, so that's the story. Anyway like I said that's the way I try and live my life. Though I save myself a bit of time by not asking the same damn stupid question every morning.