Attitude is everything

[Guest guest]

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was

always in a good mood and always had 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 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 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

emergency room 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 breathe 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.

 

Francie Baltazar-Schwartz

 

Source: Chicken Soup for the Soul at Work.

 

 

MAY SAI BLESS US ALL!!!!