So Jerry was the kind of man you love to hate. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. So when someone asked Jerry how he was doing, he would reply "If I were better, I would be twins!".
He was also a unique manager and had several waiters who had followed Jerry from restaurant to restaurant, and the reason for this was becuase of Jerry's positive uplifting attitude. Jerry was a natural motivator, if an employee was having a bad day, Jerry would be there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. One day one of the waiters went up to Jerry and asked him "I don't get it! You can't be positive all the time. How do you do it what is your secret?" Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and I 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 negative or bad happens, I can choose to be a victime or I can choose to learn and grow from it. I choose to learn and grow 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." "Yes but surely that is not so easy to do protested the waiter" "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 or bad mood. The bottom line: It is your chpoice how you live life." The waiter reflected on these words, soon thereafter he left the restaurant industry to start his own business. Jerry and the waiter lost touch, but he often thought about Jerry when he made a choice in life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, the the waiter 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 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. The waiter saw Jerry about six months after the accident. When the waiter asked him how he was, he replied "If i was better, I'd be twins, Want to see my scars?" the waiter declined to see the scars 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 scaered? Did you lose consciousness?" asked the waiter. 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?" asked the waiter. "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 ansd nurses stopped working on me 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, and not dead."
Jerry lived thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude. Many have learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.
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