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INSPIRATIONAL PAGES
CHOICES
Jim 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, would reply, "If I were any
better, I would be twins!"
He was a natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, Jim 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 Jim
and
asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the
time.
How do you do it?"
Jim 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. Choose the
positive side of life.
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested. "Yes, it is," Jim 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 Jim 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 Jim was involved in a serious
accident,
falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jim was released
from
the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw Jim 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 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," Jim 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.
Jim 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 Jim.
"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."
Jim 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.
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about
itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
