Attitude is Everything

[Hawks Feather]

I started going through the old computer today and thought I would start sharing some of the many things like this.  If you don't like them, just don't read posts that I start in the Tailgate. 

Jerry


Jim 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, 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 Jim was because of his attitude.  He was a natural motivator.  If an employee was having a bad day, Jim 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 Jim and asked him, I don’t get it!  You can’t be a positive person all of the time.  How do you do it?”

Jim replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jim, 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,” Jim 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.”

I reflected on what Jim said.  Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant 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 Jim did something you are never supposed to do in a restaurant business â€" 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, Jim was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jim was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body.  I saw Jim 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,” Jim 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.  Jim 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 Jim.  “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.”

Jim 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.

[Bills Custom Calls]

Good story Jerry

And your right Attitude is everything

[pitw]

Thank You Jerry .  Superb tale and a lesson for all.

[Silencer]

Thanks, I find myself lately being negative, will wake up tomorrow and think of this and/or read it again

[iahntr]

Good read Jerry. I've actually been thinking
quite a bit about this exact thing lately.
Thanks

[JohnP]

I too try to keep a good attitude about everything.  Although I'm find it harder and harder to do in these trying times.

[Frogman]

I like that story.  I like to think this Jim (Frogman) is a lot like the Jim in the story!!

Jim

[msmith]

Thanks Jerry!

[alscalls]

 

[FinsnFur]

I still remember that day

[Hawks Feather]

I still remember that day

I thought you would.

Jerry