If I were to ask you, “How are you doing today?” what would be your reply?
Good?
It’s ok?
Not too bad?
Great?
As always?
These are a few of the pretty standard replies I get whenever I ask someone, “How are you doing today?”
In fact, these are also the pretty standard replies I would give whenever someone asks me the same question.
Sometimes, I feel that we give these replies not because that’s how we truly feel, but simply because we need to give a reply and they seem to be the most standard and appropriate answer to the question.
And sometimes, the reply we give may even be entirely opposite to how we actually feel. For example, have you ever told someone you feel great when in fact you’ve had a bad day just because you want the person to stop asking further so that you won’t be reminded of your bad day?
I did.
Has it ever come across to you how this simple question and answer reflects the way we live our lives?
It never occurred to me, until I received an email from a friend recently.
Today I’m going to share with you the story in the email.
It’s a story about the 2 choices you can make in your life every day to either enjoy your life or to hate it.
It’s a very inspiring story. Go on, read it. You’ll be glad you did.
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You Have Two Choices.
Jerry is the manager of a restaurant. He is always in a good mood.
When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would always reply:
“If I were any better, I would be twins!”
Many of the waiters at his restaurant quit their job when he changed job, so they could follow him around from restaurant t restaurant.
Why?
Because Jerry was a natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was always 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! No one can be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”
Jerry replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, I have two choices today. I can choose to be in a good mood or I can choose to be a bad mood. I always 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 always choose to learn from it.
Each time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or I can point out the positive side of life. I always choose the positive side of life.”
“But it’s not always 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.
It’s your choice how you live your life.”
Several years later, I heard that Jerry accidentally did something you are never supposed to do in the restaurant business.
He left the back door of his restaurant open.
And then??
In the morning, he was robbed by three armed men.
While Jerry was trying to open the safe box, his hand, shaking from nervousness, slipped off the combination.
The robbers panicked and shot him.
Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital.
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 6 months after the accident.
When I asked him how he was, he replied, “If I were any better, I’d be twins! Want to 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, after they shot me, 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?” 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 expression 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 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. Please 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 you have the choice to either enjoy your life or to hate it.
The only thing that is truly yours – that no one can control or take from you – is your attitude, so if you can take care of that, everything else in life becomes much easier.
******************************
So what would your answer be the next time someone asks, “How are you doing today?”
Developing a positive attitude is all about how you frame the world. It’s about managing your mindset.
Manage Your Mind. Transform Your Life.
That’s what this blog is about.
To your success my friend.
Cheers~
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