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CHOICES

Unknown Author

READ THIS CAREFULLY, LET IT SINK IN!!!

Rob 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,
 would reply, "If I were any
   better, I would be twins!"

   He was a natural motivater.

   If an employee was having a bad day, Rob 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 Rob
   and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a
 positive person all of
   the time. How do you do it?"

Rob 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," Rob 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 Rob said.

   Soon thereafter, 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 Rob was
 involved in a serious accident,
   falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.
 After 18 hours of surgery and
   weeks of intensive care, Rob was released from
 the hospital with rods placed
   in his back.

   I saw Rob 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," Rob 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.

Rob 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 Rob. "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."

   Rob 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.

   "Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for
 tomorrow will worry about
   itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
 After all, today is the
   tomorrow you worried about yesterday.