DANCE LIKE NOBODY'S WATCHING
Jeff 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 Jeff was because of his attitude. He was a natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, Jeff 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 Jeff
and asked him, "I don't get it! You can't be a positive person all of
the time. How do you do it?" Jeff replied, "Each morning I wake up and
say to myself, Jeff, 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," Jeff 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 mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you
live life." I reflected on what Jeff said.
Soon thereafter, I left the restaurant industry to start my own
business. We lost touch, but often thought about him when I made a
choice about life instead of reacting to it. Several years later, I
heard that Jeff 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, Jeff was found relatively quickly and rushed to the local
trauma centre. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care,
Jeff was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still
in his body.
I saw Jeff about six months after the accident. When I asked him how
he was, he said, "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," Jeff
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.
Jeff 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
Jeff. "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."
Jeff 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.
Work like you don't need the money,
Love like you've never been hurt,
Dance like nobody's watching. |