Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude

[Guest guest]

I got this from Leny:

" YOUR ATTITUDE DETERMINES YOUR ALTITUDE " . . . (Zig Zigler)

Read this, and let it really sink in...Then choose how you start your day

tomorrow...

Jerry is the kind of guy you can't help but like and want to be around. 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 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 really 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 YOUR life. "

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant

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 Jerry did something you are 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 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 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. 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 we have the choice to live

fully. Attitude, after all, is everything.

You have two choices now:

1. Delete this.

2. Forward it to the people you care about.

Hope you will choose #2. I did.

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