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This one is not as much humor as it is
Food for thought. It made me stop and wonder about our priorities.
You have choice!
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
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! 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,' 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. 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.
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