Read this, then choose how you start your day tomorrow...

Jerry 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 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 life."

I reflected on what Jerry said. Soon there after, 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 in to 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 everyday 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