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.

"Therefore do not worry about

tomorrow, for tomorrow will

worry about itself. Each day has

enough trouble of its own."

Matthew 6:34.

After all today is the tomorrow