Attitude

(A story about positive attitude from an email forward )
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 the 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.