Just got this...

[ElTico68]

Posted: 4/6/05 at 5:47pm

and thought I'd share. You know how sometimes you read something that totally speaks to you at that moment... this is one of those times for me.

-----

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 was any better, I would be twins!"

He was a natural motivator. If an employee was having a bad day, Michael was there telling the person 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 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 Michael was involved in a serious accident, he fell some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and several 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, "If I was 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 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," said Michael. "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 shouted, '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, every day we have a 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.
You have two choices now:

1. Ignore this.

2. Share this with people you care about.

You know the choice I made.

[CurtainUp2]

Posted: 4/6/05 at 5:51pm

Me thinks Michael's full of s#!t.

Updated On: 4/6/05 at 05:51 PM

[NYadgal]

Posted: 4/6/05 at 6:58pm

well, I agree that life is all about choices.

Attitude makes a BIG difference.

[Elphaba]

Posted: 4/6/05 at 7:02pm

methinks Michael recites Desiderata too much.....

[mominator]

Posted: 4/6/05 at 7:02pm

Speaking as someone who owes her life to skilled doctors (who also has steel rods in her back as well!) Attitude is everything!

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 4/6/05 at 7:28pm

Thanks for that El Tico. That is something I have always tried to live by. If that makes people love to hate me so be it. It's much better than the alternative. And optimists live longer so *rasberry*!!!!