by: Unknown
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 Jerry and 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 gun point 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 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 of his amazing attitude. I learned from
him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.
If everyone
applies just these, the whole world will live
in happiness.
A
Motivational story about Positive Thinking