Choices

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about choices. We make them each day, and we’re accountable for them… today this was a story read in church:

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.