It's All About Attitude And Your Choices

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Plays In The Dirt
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It's All About Attitude And Your Choices

Post by Plays In The Dirt »

I posted this on the desert environmental forum, but given that many of you choose not to visit there, and how important I feel this message is, I'm posting it here as well. It's off topic to be sure, but in today's seemingly angry world one's attitude can make huge changes. Can you live your life more like John? It's all about choices...

John 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 motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, John 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 and asked him, 'I don't get it!'
'You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?'
He 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 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,' he 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 your life.'
I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower 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 he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw him 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 I 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,' he 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.
He 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?' I asked.
'Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me,' said John. '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.'
He 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.
After all today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.
Sandman
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Re: It's All About Attitude And Your Choices

Post by Sandman »

yep....it's all mind over matter. If ya don't mind it don't matter!

Thanks for sharing this positive message PITD
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Re: It's All About Attitude And Your Choices

Post by reptilist »

I agree. And life is better when you rid yourself of vexatious people and their conversations. Which is why I suggest steering clear of the "environmental" forum...I admit that sometimes it's like looking at a bad car wreck...But for the betterment of your soul and the quality of your life, Turn away! So long as I am moderating the D P&A forum, rudeness will be culled and pleasant conversation will be the norm.
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Plays In The Dirt
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Re: It's All About Attitude And Your Choices

Post by Plays In The Dirt »

reptilist wrote:I agree. And life is better when you rid yourself of vexatious people and their conversations. Which is why I suggest steering clear of the "environmental" forum...I admit that sometimes it's like looking at a bad car wreck...But for the betterment of your soul and the quality of your life, Turn away! So long as I am moderating the D P&A forum, rudeness will be culled and pleasant conversation will be the norm.


Point well taken Reptilist, and I agree. Vexatious is a clear description of many of the posters on that forum. I also agree with your analogy of it being like looking at a car wreck, but I saw enough of that in a previous employment.

The desert environment encompasses so much more than OHV's. How did this ever become the only topic of discussion? Perhaps it's time that Jim once again dismantles that forum to cull the herd so to speak. It's an important topic for discussion to be sure, so it could be brought back with explicit rules that prohibit any talk of OHV's, as this is such a controversial subject.

I Hope Everyone Is Having A Wonderful Easter!
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Allen
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Re: It's All About Attitude And Your Choices

Post by Allen »

Plays In The Dirt wrote:
reptilist wrote:I agree. And life is better when you rid yourself of vexatious people and their conversations. Which is why I suggest steering clear of the "environmental" forum...I admit that sometimes it's like looking at a bad car wreck...But for the betterment of your soul and the quality of your life, Turn away! So long as I am moderating the D P&A forum, rudeness will be culled and pleasant conversation will be the norm.


Point well taken Reptilist, and I agree. Vexatious is a clear description of many of the posters on that forum. I also agree with your analogy of it being like looking at a car wreck, but I saw enough of that in a previous employment.

The desert environment encompasses so much more than OHV's. How did this ever become the only topic of discussion? Perhaps it's time that Jim once again dismantles that forum to cull the herd so to speak. It's an important topic for discussion to be sure, so it could be brought back with explicit rules that prohibit any talk of OHV's, as this is such a controversial subject.

I Hope Everyone Is Having A Wonderful Easter!
To turn away from the "vexatious" posters in the Desert Environmental and Land Uses forum, would mean you would have to turn off everyone that currently uses that forum. Constant OHV discussions is not what I envisioned seeing in that forum but the OHV issue became the main topic as a result of the many unfounded charges leveled at nearly all OHV users, instead of narrowing those accusations down to the minority that draws all of this wicked attention. Several of the posters are too narrow minded to reason with and with their obvious agenda being to rid the planet of all OHV use, then those of us who ride responsibly see that as a rallying cry to come out in defense of responsible OHV use. Nothing good will be determined as long as good people are always accused of wrongdoing by that type of individual. As an example for your line of work PITD, it would be like the Government shutting down your Mine due to other poor environmental practices that might have been common with less responsible mining companies. Reptilist, I'm sure that the discussions in that forum would take on a more peaceful and meaningful manner if those blanket accusations were to discontinue. There was a period a few months ago, where serious discussion did take place regarding OHV use and how to mitigate it's effect on the Desert Environment. This occurred during a one or two week period where Sal, Sandman and EZRider were not posting while Sandman was on a fishing trip to some islands off the Mexico coast. There was a lot of positive input during their absence. When someone threatens your livelihood, your recreation, or blindly accuses you of something you didn't so, then the gloves come off. Seems to be human nature.
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Re: It's All About Attitude And Your Choices

Post by WillCAD »

Not to be a wet blanket or anything, but...

That story is right about one thing - every situation is a choice. I choose to look at life realistically.

In reality, bad things happen all the time. Bad things happen to me, to people I love, to people I hate, to people I don't know. I choose to watch out for those bad things and avoid as many as I can. I choose to warn my friends, family, and coworkers about as many of those bad things as I can, and help them to avoid those bad things to the best of my ability.

But I also choose to face and accept the reality that no matter how much I try, neither I nor the people I love will ever be able to avoid all of the bad things, and some of them WILL happen to us. When they do, I choose to deal with them as best I can. But I also choose not to look at the world through rose-colored glasses, because to do so would leave me unprepared and unawares when bad things loom.

My life is infinitely better BECAUSE of my realistic (though some call it pessimistic) outlook.
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