Perhaps this will illustrate the difference between attitude and behavior.
(see my remarks at the end of this post)
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The Power Breakfast - April 24, 1997
Volume #2, Issue #025
A Production Of Empowerment Now!
http://www.empowerment-now.com/
Written By Michael A. Wineke - Copyright 1997
Shop The Web In 1997 - Pass It On!
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[ In This Issue ]
1. Sponsor Information
2. Attitude Is Everything - A Thought Provoker
3. List Information
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[ Attitude Is Everything - A Thought Provoker ]
Attitude Is Everything
Author: Francie Baltazar-Schwartz
Jerry was the kind of guy you love to hate. He was always in a good
mood and always had 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 or bad mood. The bottom line: It's
your choice how you live 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 emergency room
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.
Have A Great Day!
Yours In Success,
Michael A. Wineke
Founder, Empowerment Now!
404-685-4091 - Office
404-685-4094 - Fax
http://www.empowerment-now.com/
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____________________________________________________________________
I believe that the attitude that Jerry instilled in the medical staff
before he went under the knife had a positive effect on the attitude and
motivation of an ER staff that deals with death on a constant basis.
Jerry's "allergy" and affirmation towards life would be an attitudinal
shift I would like to hire if I were in his shoes.
______________________
Great Optimism,
Dutch Driver
Dept. of Communication
McMurry University
Abilene, TX
ddriver@cs1.mcm.edu