IJMC - Jerry

It's not easy to be positive all the time. Those who know me know I've 
had some really negative moments. But I agree with this, it's a choice. 
You choose one or the other and although it can be difficult to stay 
positive, it's worth it. Changing from thinking negatively to thinking 
positively isn't something that happens quickly or without effort, but I 
choose to try and I hope you do as well. Have a great week!        -dave





   ATTITUDE IS EVERYTHING
   by Francie Baltazar-Schwartz

 Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate.  He was always in a good mood
 and always had something positive to say.  When someone asked him how he
 was doing, he'd reply, "If I were any better, I'd 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 Jerry was because of his attitude.  He was a natural motivator.
 If an employee was having a bad day, Jerry was there telling the employee
 how to look on the positive side of the situation.  Seeing this style made
 me curious, so one day I went up to Jerry and asked him, "I don't get it!
 You can't be a positive person all of the time.  How do you do it?"

 Jerry replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, 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," 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.  The bottom line:  It's your choice how you live life."

 I reflected on what Jerry said.  Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant
 industry to start my own business.  We lost touch, but often thought
 about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

 Several years later, I heard that Jerry did something you're never
 supposed to do in a restaurant business:  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, Jerry was
 found relatively quickly and rushed to the local trauma center.  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 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," Jerry
 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. 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 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 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'm choosing to live.  Operate on
 me as if I'm 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 we have the choice to live fully.  Attitude, after all, 
 is everything.


 You have two choices now:
   1. save or delete this mail from your mail box.
   2. forward it to your dear ones (excluding me) and choose life.

 I hope, you will choose choice 2.