LET IT REALLY SINK IN…… THEN CHOOSE .

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 chooseto 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 you worried about yesterday.
You have two choices now:

01. Delete this

02. Forward it to the people you care about.
You know the choice I made.

In mid-May, Arkansas’ baseball season was in shambles. A lightning start that had the Razorbacks ranked No. 1 nationally in some polls had given way to a numbing slump that threatened the team’s NCAA tournament chances.

Arkansas now is in the finals of its bracket in the College World Series. A postseason surge few could have foreseen has transformed the Razorbacks from woebegone losers to feel-good winners.

“It seemed once the regular season was over we were all disappointed,” coach Dave Van Horn said. “But we still had the No. 1 goal in front of us — to win the national championship.

“To do that, we had to get to Omaha. We challenged our players. Did they want to be remembered as the team that started off fast and faded or the one that finished strong?”

The players opted for the latter.

After pounding No. 2 seed Cal State-Fullerton 10-6 in its opener, Arkansas was knocked into the losers bracket with a 9-1 defeat to LSU.

That set the stage for Wednesday’s thrilling 4-3, 12-inning elimination-game victory against Virginia.

The Razorbacks were down to their last strike, trailing 3-1 in the ninth, before Brett Eibner slammed a tying home run.

Dallas Keuchel, who went six innings against Fullerton, pitched the final four innings in his first relief appearance.

That allowed senior Andrew Darr to double home the winning run in the 12th and give Arkansas another chance against LSU today. The Razorbacks need to beat the Tigers twice to advance, but that doesn’t faze them.

“We’ve been like this all year,” Van Horn said of Arkansas’ resilient nature. “We were fighting for our lives, and we struggled and lost a lot of close games. Then we kind of got on a roll.”

None of this would have seemed believable in May. Arkansas closed the regular season by losing its last eight Southeastern Conference games. It headed into the postseason 9-16 in its last 25 games.

That all changed in the Norman (Okla.) Regional. The Razorbacks went 3-0, beating host and No. 7 national seed Oklahoma twice. Then they went 2-0 at Florida State in the super regionals, rallying in the ninth inning to win the clinching game on another timely double from Darr.

Arkansas’ clutch play in Omaha is a reflection of its season. The Razorbacks are 7-1 in extra innings and have won 16 games when they were tied or trailing in the seventh inning or later. They have produced 11 of their 15 runs in the CWS with two outs.

“Any team that’s playing well is getting big hits with two outs,” Van Horn said. “We’ve really been getting that. Sometimes when it’s going, it’s going. And it’s really going.”

Arkansas now must beat an LSU team that has won three of four from the Razorbacks this season and has a rested and ready pitching staff.

“It would be nice to get off to a nice start,” Van Horn said. “That’s kind of been our problem against LSU. We’re behind quick, and it’s hard to bounce back against them.”

That is a great story – appreciate you sharing. Sen me the link to the article if you get a chance.

Thanks.

Merrill

Good comments – it is great to hear when someone will say they were one way and overtime has changed…. good for you… scary but maybe we are all getting a little older, wiser and more mature..:).. I know I am.

I actually think most people look at the glass half empty especially now since the economy is very challenging.

Merrill

Appreciate your comments – very good points. I think attitude (having the right attitude) is everything. I actually look for that when I am interviewing potential candidates.

Thanks.

Merrill

Very good point! You are 100% right people can control how they respond to things – a lesson all of us should learn.

Nice contribution.

Merrill