Choices

My grandmother sent me this forward a couple of years ago. What's funny about this is that I received it a few months after someone had broken up with me for being too negative. Well, that's what he said. I actually didn't believe him when he told me, but after reading this forward, I changed my mind, and my life. And lately, I've been down in the dumps, but I stumbled upon this and sent it to a friend that's been down as well. I didn't realize that I needed it too.

So here it is.


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 curiuos, so one day I went up and said, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"

He cooly replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, 'You have two choices today. You can choose to be in good mood, or you can choose to be in a bad mood.' I choose the 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 a bad mood. The bottom line; it's your choice how you live your life."

I reflected on waht he said. Soon hereafter, I left eh Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.

Several years later, I heard taht 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 tods 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. Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered taht I had two choices: I could choose to live, or I coudl 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 teh 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?"

"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 becuase of his amazing attitude. I learned from 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. And today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.


I am so happy that my grandmother sent me this. It's something I've saved for over two years now, and luckily for my friend having such a hard time with life, I re-read it and remembered something most valuable.

On top of that, it occured to me this year that I'm someone you'd call a planner. I worry about my future instead of worrying about today. I've always been told, "you need to live more in the moment." It's funny that this year, I met someone who touched my life briefly. He has a tattoo that says, "in the moment." And what's funny is that I am completely unable to. And though the encounter with him was a short one, he completely changed the course of my life. And I'll never forget that simple tattoo.

So, it's good I have the memories and the faith to push forward through now to be able to enjoy tomorrow.