attitude towards life
THE ATTITUDE TO LIFE
Lucas was the kind of person you would love to be. He was always in a good mood and always had something positive to say. When someone asked him how he was doing, he replied:
– “I can not be better”.
He was a unique manager, a natural motivator: If an employee was having a bad day, Lucas was there to tell the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went to find Lucas and asked him:
I don’t get it… it’s not possible to be a positive person all the time! How do you do it? Lucas replied:
“Every morning I wake up and I say to myself: Lucas, you have two options 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.”
“Every time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or learn from it. I choose to learn from it.”
“Every time someone comes to me to complain, I can either accept their complaint or I can point them to the bright side of life. I choose the bright side of life.”
– Yes, sure, but it’s not that easy, I protested.
“Yes it is,” Lucas said. “Everything in life is about choice. When you take everything else away, every situation is a choice.”
“You choose how you react to each situation, you choose how people affect your mood, you choose to be in a good or bad mood.” “In short, YOU CHOOSE HOW TO LIVE LIFE.”
I reflected on what Lucas told me…
Shortly thereafter, I left the restaurant world to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought of Lucas, when I had to make a choice in life instead of reacting against it.
Several years later, I learned that Lucas did something that should never be done in a restaurant business: he left the back door open and was robbed one morning by three armed robbers. As he tried to open the safe, his hand, shaking with nervousness, slipped off the combination. The assailants panicked and shot him. With great luck, Lucas was found relatively soon and rushed to a Clinic.
After eight hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Lucas was released, still with bullet fragments in his body. I met Lucas six months after the incident and when I asked him how he was, he replied:
– “I can not be better”.
I asked him what was going through his mind at the time of the assault. Answer:
The first thing that came to mind was that I should have locked the back door.
When I was lying on the floor, I remembered that I had two options: I could choose to live or I could
choose to die. I chose to live.”
– Weren’t you afraid? I asked him. Lucas continued:
– “The doctors were great. They kept telling me that I was going to be fine. But when they took me to the operating room and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, it really scared me. I could read in their eyes: He’s a dead man. I knew then that I had to make a decision.
– What did you do?, I asked.
– “Well, one of the doctors asked me if I was allergic to something and taking a deep breath I said: Yes, to bullets – While they laughed, I told them: I am choosing to live, oppress me as if I were alive, not dead.”
Lucas lived for the mastery of doctors, but above all for his amazing attitude. I learned that every day we have the choice to live fully. The attitude, at the end, it is everything.
Return to the main page of Javier’s Catholic Web
Sign in the guest book
Subscribe to Javier’s Catholic Web mailing list for free to receive weekly updates.