Attitude is Everything

Jerry was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. He was a unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed him 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.

When being asked how he could be a positive, up person all the time, 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.”

“Life is all about choice,” said Jerry. “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 is: it’s your choice how you live life.”

Several years ago, Jerry left the back door of the restaurant 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 hospital. “As I lay on the floor,” Jerry said, “I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

At the hospital, the paramedics kept telling Jerry he was going to be fine. But when they wheeled him into the emergency room and he saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, he got really scared. In their eyes, he read, “He’s a dead man.”

A big, burly nurse asked Jerry if he was allergic to anything. “Yes,” Jerry answered. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for his reply. Jerry took a deep breath and yelled, “Bullets!” Over their laughter, Jerry told them, “I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.”

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital. Every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.