Jerry is the manager of a restaurant. He is always in a good mood.<>
When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply: <>“If I were any better, I would be twins!”<>
Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed jobs, so they could follow him around from restaurant to restaurant.<>
Why? Because Jerry was a natural motivator.<>
If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always there, telling him 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! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”<>
Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood.<>
I always choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be victim or I can choose to learn from it. I always 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 always choose the positive side of life.”<>
“But it’s not always 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. <>It’s your choice how you live your life.”<>
Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business. <>
He left the back door of his restaurant open And then in the morning, he was robbed by three armed men. <>
While Jerry trying to open the safe box, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him.<>
Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital.<>
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. Want to 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, after they shot me, as I lay on the floor, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or could choose to die. I chose to live.”<>
“Weren’t you scared” 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 expression 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 nurse shouting questions at me,” said Jerry. “She asked if I was allergic to anything.” “Yes,” to bullets, I replied.<>
Over their laughter, I told them: “I am choosing to live. Please 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 you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it.<>
The only thing that is truly yours – that no one can control or take from you – is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.<>
Now you have two choices to make:<>
1- You can ignore this message or<>
2- You can learn and apply the lessons from this story.<>
