In one of the famous telecommunications companies, a man named Michael worked. Michael was a smiling man, the type who always used to smile at life and look at the bright side in it. Michael always advised his colleagues at the company to look at everything positive in life so they would enjoy it.
Once, one of the company’s employees went up to his office and asked him how he could be positive all the time. Michael said to him: When I wake up every morning, I tell myself you have two choices today: either to be in a good mood or in a bad one, and I always choose the good mood.
Whenever a problem happens to me, I tell myself either to choose to be happy for it or to learn something from its occurrence, and I always choose learning. Every time one of them complains to me about a hardship he is going through, he has two choices: either to respond to it negatively and it will not benefit him, or to look at the positive side in life.
I have chosen to be positive and look at the matter from a different perspective. Sam said in astonishment: The matter is not easy as you say. Michael continued his speech, saying: Everything in life has choices. When we avoid the unwanted things in it, that is a choice.
You choose the way you interact with situations, as if you choose for example the way people affect your mood, whether with what is good or what is bad. You always have in your hand the choice of the way you live your life with. Sam after a little while left the company finally and moved to work in another place. He did not meet Michael finally until he heard of the occurrence of a serious accident to him in the company. Michael had fallen from the top of a communications tower 60 feet long, and as a result was injured with serious wounds.
The doctors continued treating his wound that continued for 18 hours, then they placed him in the intensive care unit. After leaving the hospital a year later, he met Sam by chance. Sam began asking him about his health, mood, and how he had become now?
Then he asked him about that moment when he fell from the top of the tower and what was on his mind at that time? Michael said with his usual positivity: When I was lying on the ground, I remembered I had two choices before me: either to choose life or death, and I chose life. Sam asked with concern: Were you not afraid then? Michael said: When I saw the expressions of the doctors’ faces, I could see in their eyes that I was a dead man.
Then I realized I must do something. When one of the nurses asked me if I had sensitivity to anything, I said to her yes. At that time, all doctors and nurses stopped waiting to know what I was feeling. It was possible that this complex medical operation would succeed, and she was the only one in salvation. I took a deep breath then and said to her: By your ability.
They all laughed while smiling at me. Here I made my decision and said to them one sentence: I chose life, so do everything in your power and deal with my condition as if it is simple and that I am a man who will be on the verge of life, not dead. And here I am now standing before you smiling at life.
Moral Value Learned: We have every day the choice to live fully, so we must live life positively to live it with happiness and ease. Every day may bring us accidents and problems, but the decisive thing in them is our choices in dealing with those problems, either by surrendering to them or looking at the positive side in them, then overcoming them and learning from them.
The story is translated from: Importance of Positive Attitude in Life