Attitude is Everything!

By Francie Baltazar-Schwartz

Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate.  He was always in a good mood and always had 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 unique manager because he had several waiters who had followed 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 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! You can't be a positive person all of the time.  How do you do it?"

 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."

"Yeah, right, it's not 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.  The bottom line: It's your choice how you live life."
 

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I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own business.  We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.  Several years later, I 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 trauma center.  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. Wanna 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, 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?" 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, burly 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.  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 we have the choice to live fully.

Attitude, after all, is everything.

Want to witness the positive side of my life? Try at your own risk....

For some of my previous posts, I have come to be known as a true delicate and emotional guy, full of negative thoughts, among my close friend(s). Just for that sake, I am coming up with this current post.

OK. So, when do the clouds of any negative thoughts hover upon us? When does a person feel totally detached from life? When does there comes a point in life when the person finds no particular reason to live? What causes a person to commit suicide? Why does a person believe that nothing in the world belongs to him or her? Why it gets so difficult to just pass the time? Why does life seems as just GOING ON?

Enough. I believe there is a single answer to all of the above questions. But what it actually is, is actually very hard to find.

You know that something is missing for sure, but are still unaware of that Something, what is it?

I guess it to be one's own confidence level towards life. Yes, it makes sense. Just a simple concept but yet so difficult.

Sometimes, some such kind of things happen that just kill your self confidence. These can be related to anything- your family, surrounding environment, you yourself, your colleagues, working atmosphere, colour of your bed sheet or maybe the clothes that you wear.

This is what I could collect upon thinking a lot. I may even be wrong but I know that you are always there to correct me up.

I would like to mention a good Sidhuism over here:

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"Aadarsh purush wahi hota hai jo khud ko paristhitiyon ke anusar dhaal le ya phir paristhitiyon ko hi apne anukool bana le".
That's all what is in my hands, i.e. to improve. Now, lets see how much my surroundings favour me.

Mind it-- the person never changes his personality at will but definitely develops upon it once he or she comes to know about the shortcomings. The whole credit goes to the one pointing the mistakes.
Moreover, that person is the best one who can be the most useful in building the confidence and hence improving upon yourself. Benefit from him or her before its too late.

One more thing, positivity comes as a bye product of your self-confidence. Nothing so exceptional about it.

"How can you expect a treat from a dying fellow?"