It's attitude

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>>>>>ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING.........By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz 
>>>>>>     
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>  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 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 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.
>>>>>>     
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  You have 2 choices now:
>>>>>> 
>>>>>>  1. save or delete this mail from your mail box.
>>>>>>  2. forward it to your dear ones and choose to pass this on 
>>>>>>         
>>>>>>   I hope you will choose choice 2. 
--
Many of my titles:  Husband, Father, Programmer, Webmaster, Son, Worker,
 Analyst, Saint, Usher, Singer, Surfer, Skateboarder, Owner/Moderator,
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Several offices, one identity --- Tyler Nally <tgnally@prairienet.org>