Michael 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,
Michael 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
Michael and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person
all of the time. How do you do it?"
Michael 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," Michael 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 Michael said. Soon thereafter, 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 Michael was involved in a serious
accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was
released from the hospital with rods placed in his back. I saw
Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked
him how he was, he replied, "I f 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, "Michael
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.
Michael 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. 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."
Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of
his amazing attitude. I learned from him that everyday 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." -
Matthew 6:34
Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
