Motivation: Choosing To Be Positive


Jerry was a very positive person. He was always in a good mood and always had something nice to say.

One day, I said to him, "I don't get it! You can't be positive all of the time. How do you do it?"

Jerry replied, "Each morning, I wake up and say to myself, Jerry, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or 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."

"It's not that easy," I protested.

"Yes, it is," Jerry 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. The bottom line is: It is your choice how you live your life."

I refl ected on what Jerry said. As the years went by, we lost touch until one day I heard that Jerry had been held up at gunpoint by three robbers at his workplace. While trying to open the company safe, his hand slipped off the combination. The robbers panicked and shot him. Luckily, Jerry was found quickly and rushed to the hospital.

After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, Jerry was released from the hospital with fragments of the bullets still in his body. I saw him about six months after the accident.

I asked him what had gone through his mind as the robbery took place. Jerry replied, "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?" I asked. Jerry answered, "The paramedics were great. They kept telling me I was going to be fi ne. 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. I read, 'He is 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 Jerry. "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."

Jerry 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.



Adapted from www.motivateus.com/stories/attitu.htm




I developed my tutoring style mostly through:

Observation of other tutors - I select tutors either from OUM or other universities and try to emulate them as much as possible.
 
Reading materials related to effective tutoring - I choose the styles recommended by experts and try them out.
 
Trial and error - I believe it is best to do it my way and continuously improve until I get it right.
 
 
View Result