ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING !

Bill was the kind of person who was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When anyone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He had a strong fan following of people who had followed him around from one job to another. The reason the people followed Bill was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator. If any employee was having a
bad day, Bill was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.

Seeing this style really made everyone curious, so day one of his friends, Harry went up to Bill and asked him," I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time,
how do you do it?"

Bill replied, "Each morning, I wake up and say to myself, 'Bill, 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," his friend protested.

"Yes it is," Bill 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 a bad mood. The bottom line: it's your choice how you live life."

Through several years the friends lost touch and several years later, Harry heard that Bill 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 gun point 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, Bill was found relatively quickly and rushed
to the local trauma center. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Bill was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.

Harry saw Bill a few months after the accident and on asking him how he was, Bill replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins . . .wanna see my scars?" His friend 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," Bill 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 scared? Did you lose consciousness?" Harry asked. Bill 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 really got scared. In their eyes, I read,
'He's a dead man.' I knew I needed to take action."

"What did you do?" Harry asked.

"Well, there was a big, burly nurse shouting questions at me. 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. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."

Bill lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.

Every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, IS everything.

( main )        ( previous )         ( top )          ( next )