Attitude is Everything

Michael 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 natural motivator. If an employee was having a

bad day, Michael 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 Michael and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t

be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”

Michael replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself,

Mike, 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 isn’t that easy,” I protested.

“Yes, it is,” Michael 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 is: It’s your choice how you live life.”

I reflected on what Michael 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 Michael was involved in a

serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications

tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care,

Michael was released from the hospital with rods placed in

his back.

I saw Michael 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 accident took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was the well being

of my soon to be born daughter,” Michael 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.

Michael 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 Michael. “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’.”

Michael 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.