The Power to choose: (Michael’s story)
My favourite day of the
week is "Choose-day". Are you living the life you want to? If your
answer is yes, then I am delighted for you.
If, however, you are like the majority of people on the planet, then you
would be saying, "No". What,
if nothing could fail, would you choose to be?
Is it, richer, smarter, slimmer, happier, calmer......... or any other thing ending with 'er'.
So if you are not all you would choose to be, then what is happening? You are making wrong choice, .even if you think you make no choices. But if your life is mapped out and planned for you then you are choosing to think that too. Oh, and the latter is not true by the way. Often it can take something drastic to happen for us to choose another course in life, or, you can pre-empt this and choose a different path now before the crisis.
Is it, richer, smarter, slimmer, happier, calmer......... or any other thing ending with 'er'.
So if you are not all you would choose to be, then what is happening? You are making wrong choice, .even if you think you make no choices. But if your life is mapped out and planned for you then you are choosing to think that too. Oh, and the latter is not true by the way. Often it can take something drastic to happen for us to choose another course in life, or, you can pre-empt this and choose a different path now before the crisis.
The following story is a great example of this
and puts it better than I can. It may
be a true story or it may be not...
Michael was one of those guys you love to hate. He was always in such a good mood and always
had something positive to say. If
someone asked him how he was doing, he would reply, “Hey if I were any better,
I’d be twins”. He was a natural
motivator. If a colleague was having a
bad day, Michael was there giving them the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style made me
curious, so one day I went to him and said, “I don’t get it. You can’t be a positive person all the time. How do
you do it?”
Michael 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 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 accept their complaint or, I can point out the
positive side of life.
I choose the positive side of life.”
“Yeah right”, I protested,
“it’s not that easy”.
“Yes it is”, Michael said.
“Life’s all about choices. When you cut away all the junk every
situation is a choice. All you do is choose how to react to any given
situation. You choose how people affect your mood; you choose to be in a good
mood or a bad mood and you choose to help others or not help others.
The bottom line is: it’s your choice how you live life.”
I went away and reflected
on what Michael had said. Soon after, I
moved to another division and away from where Michael worked. We lost touch but, I often thought about what
he said when making a choice about life rather than reacting to it.
Several years later, I
heard that Michael had been involved in a serious accident falling some sixty
feet whilst climbing. After 20 hours of surgery and a couple of months in
intensive care, Michael was released from hospital with rods in his back. I saw Michael some six months after the
accident and asked how he was. He
smiled - I knew what was coming - and replied, “If I were any better I’d be
twins. Want to see my scars?” I said no, but did ask him what went through
his mind as the accident took place. He responded, “The first thing that went
through my mind was the wellbeing of my children. Then as I lay on the ground,
I reminded myself I had a choice. I
could choose to live or to die.
I chose to live.”
“Weren’t you scared?” I
asked. Michael continued, “The paramedics
were great. They kept telling me I would
be fine but when they wheeled me into the A&E department, I saw the
expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses. Then I got really scared”. “I saw in their eyes, ‘he’s a dead man’,
and I knew I needed to do something.”
“So what did you do?”, I enquired. “Well”,
he responded, “There was this big nurse who kept asking me questions and
if I was allergic to anything, so I replied, Yes. The doctors and nurses stopped working, all waiting
for my answer. So, I drew a breath and
shouted “Gravity!!!!” Over their
laughter I told them, “I am choosing to live.
Operate on me as though I am alive and not dead.”
Michael lived, thanks to
the skill of the doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.
I learned from Michael
that every day we have a choice to live happily and fully and what’s great is
it’s in our control; it’s our choice. We
choose our attitude.
Attitude after all, is everything.
So, don’t worry about
tomorrow, today should be full enough for you and, anyway, isn’t today the
tomorrow you worried about yesterday?
So what will you do now
you know you have a choice?
Till next time...choose
wisely
Kevin Laye TFT DX RCT
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