Think about it as you read this story.....



John 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, John 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 and asked him, 'I don't get it!

You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?'

He 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,' he 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 he said. Soon hereafter, 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 he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.

I saw him 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,' he 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

He 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 John. '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.'

He 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.

It is Sonja!! I believe this so strongly. Of course it is all well and good to say it and even believe it; it is harder to walk the talk. I consider myself a postive person for the most part. On shaky ground it is just harder to stay focused on positve thought. Why? I believe some or maybe even most of it is programming.... the stuff we learn as impressionable children, the incoming stuff we aren't even conciously aware of.

My life is changing and I am ever so grateful to friends who have come to my aide during this trying period in my life. While my mind was not always conciously there I knew deep down it would soon be okay.

I'm sure it ALL made a difference, but I have a need to bring up one of the key things I think is helping me make those changes from within. Please check out this site and in particular the Practice Happiness CD. There was a lot of research done on this to help you reprogram those things we keep doing, that we don't want to keep doing!!

http://www.practicehappiness.com/13/practice_happiness%21_cd

I love choices.
Abraham Lincoln said, "Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be."
Christina
PS Thanks for the reminder Sonja.

Thanks for sharing, Sonja. I loved the story. It's a great reminder.

Great story Sonja

This is pretty much the way I try and live my life and on the whole it has served me very well. I have been through some pretty rough times here and there, but in hindsight they were all opportunities for me to grow and develop and learn to love more. It is very hard to be down about anything these days. I am very conscious of the words I use and the choices I make. I actually can't remember when I was last in a bad mood. There's no time for that. Every minute counts and every minute you can choose to make a difference in someone's life, there are hundreds of ways.

I choose not to harbour resentment, to always try and think the higher thought, to see things from other peoples viewpoint and above all I try to be kind. It takes a lot of practice, but It is way worth it. I don't always get it right first time but I try hard to correct my thought patterns as soon as I see that things are going wrong in my life. That's the time to do it. It is always a sign that you are faced with an opportunity to grow and learn new ways of looking at life.

I think it was Wayne Dyer who said "everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose"

Lots of love
Wendy