READ THIS, LET IT SINK IN, THEN DECIDE

Joe is the kind of guy you love to hate.  He is always in a good mood & 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, Joe 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 & ask him, "I don't get it

You can't be positive a person all of the time. How do you do it?"

He replied, "Each morning I wake up & 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.

Everytime someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or...I can point out the positive side of live!...I choose the positive side of life.

"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices.  When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you reacto 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 he said.  Soon thereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business.  We lost touch, but I often think about hime when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a  communications tower. 

After 18 hours of surger & weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him 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 through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be daughter," he 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. 

He continued, "...the paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the ER & I saw the expression on the faces of the doctors & nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I readm '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 Joe. "She asked if I was allergice to anything.  "Yes, I replied. The doctors & nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply.  I took a deep breath & yelled "Gravity".

Over their laughter, I told the, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

He 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".  Matthew 6:34. 

After all, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

You have two choices now...

Me, I'm choose living & trying to learn how to live.