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.
