Living for Today
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, Michael 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.
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:
1. Leave this page.
2. Forward it to the people you care about.
God Bless, and smile, it
could be contagious.
