The Power of Positive Attitude – Ahmed’s Story!!

Ahmed 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, Ahmed 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 Ahmed and asked him, “I don’t get it! You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?”
Ahmed replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Ahmed, 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 isn’t that easy,” I protested.
“Yes, it is,” Ahmed 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 is: It’s your choice how you live life.”

I reflected on what Ahmed said. Soon thereafter, 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 Ahmed was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Ahmed was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw Ahmed 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 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,” Ahmed replied.
“Weren’t you scared? Did you lose consciousness?” I asked.
Ahmed continued, “The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the Emergency 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 Ahmed. “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 want to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead’.”
Ahmed lived, and passed through the difficult phase because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully. Attitude, after all, makes a big difference in Life.