Choices




Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate.  He was 

always in  a good mood and always had 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 unique manager because 

he had several waiters who had

followed him around from restaurant

 to restaurant.  The reason the waiters

followed Jerry was because of his attitude.  

He was a  natural motivator.

If an employee was having  a bad day, 

Jerry  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 Jerry and

asked him, "I don't get it!  You can't be

 a positive person all of the time.

How do you do it?"  



Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to

myself, Jerry, 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," 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. 

 The bottom line:  It's your choice how you

live life." 



 I reflected on what Jerry said.  Soon thereafter, I left the

restaurant industry to start my own business. 

 We lost touch, but often thought about  him when 

I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.



Several years later,  I heard that Jerry did 

something you are never supposed to do in a 

restaurant business:  he left the back door open one

morning and was held up at gunpoint by 

 three armed robbers.  While trying

to open the safe, his hand, shaking from 

nervousness, slipped off the

combination. The robbers panicked and shot him.





Luckily, Jerry was found relatively quickly 

and rushed to the local trauma

center. 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.

 Wanna 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, as I lay on the floor, 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.





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 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 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.  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 we have the choice to

live fully.  Attitude, after all, is everything.



 

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