>> > READ THIS. LET IT REALLY SINK IN...
>> >
>> > THEN CHOOSE HOW YOU START YOUR DAY TOMORROW...
>> >
>> > Michael 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 motivater.
>> >
>> > If an employee was having a bad day, Michael 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 Michael and asked
>> > him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of the time. How
>> > do you do it?"
>> >
>> > Michael replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, Mike, 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,"Michael
>> > 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 life."
>> >
>> > I reflected on what Michael said. Soon thereafter, I left the Towe
>> > 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 Michael was involved in a serious
>> > accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18
>> > hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from
>> > the hospital with rods placed in his back.
>> >
>> > I saw Michael 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 accident took place.
>> >
>> > "The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon
>> > to be born daughter, " Michael 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.  Michael
>> > 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?" asked.
>> >
>> > "Well there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said
>> > Michael.  "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."
>> >
>> > Michael 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
>> >
>> > You have two choices now:
>> >
>> >             1. Delete this.
>> >             2. Forward it to the people you care about.
>> >
>> > I hope you will choose #2. I did.
>> >
>> >
>
>
>


Bobby Thompson
Labs and Observatory
Physics, Geology, and Astronomy Dept.
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
http://www.utc.edu/~jonesobs