A story

A Story of a person who looks life slightly different from everyone.

Jerry is a manager of a restaurant in San Francisco. 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 always reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!"

Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their jobs when he changed
jobs, so
they could follow 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 always 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! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How
do you do it?".

Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two
choices today.
I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be in a bad mood.
I always
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 always 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 always
choose the
positive side of life.".

"But it's not always 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. It's your
choice how you live your life."
Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you
are never
supposed to do in the restaurant business: he left the back door of his
restaurant
open one morning and was robbed by three armed men. 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 quickly and
rushed to the 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. 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.
Want to 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, after they shot me, as I lay on the
floor, I
remembered that I had two choices: could choose to live or could choose
to die.
I chose to live.
"Weren't you scared" 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 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. Please 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 you have the choice to either enjoy
your life or to hate it.
The only thing that is truly yours (that no one can control or take
from you) is your attitude,
so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much
easier.