You Have Two Choices

Jerry is the manager of a restaurant. He is always in a good mood. When

someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply: 'If I

were any better, I would be twins!'

Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed

jobs, so they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant Why?

Because Jerry was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad

day, Jerry was always there, telling him 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! No one can be a positive person 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. Each 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 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..

It's your choice how you live your life.

Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you

are never supposed to do in the restaurant business. He left the back

door of his restaurant open and then in the morning, he was robbed by

three armed men.

While Jerry trying to open the safe box, his hand, shaking from

nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot

him. Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital.

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. Want to 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, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered

that I had two choices: I could choose to live or 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

wheeled me into the Emergency Room and I saw the expression 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 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 am choosing to live. Please 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 you have the choice to either enjoy

your life or to 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.

No comments:

Post a Comment