Attitude is Everything

“When our faces are toward the sunshine, we will not see the shadows.”

I was well into my first cup of coffee this morning when I came across the above quote. I was still thinking about the quote, letting it sink in along with the caffeine, as I dove into cup #2. Then, I opened my e-mail and one of my gals had sent me the following story. The theme of the day had obviously taken shape, so I thought I’d pass it along.

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“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 were any better, I would be
twins!”

He was a natural motivator.

If an employee was having a bad day, Michaell 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
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 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 Michael said. Soon hereafter, 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 Michael was involved in a serious
accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and 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 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,” Michael 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.

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 yelled, ‘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 that every day we have the
choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.”

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“You’ll never strain your eyes looking on the bright side of things.”

Make each moment count double,
~Joi
TMFC