Post Scripts: Choose positive!

My grandson, Doug Fessler, is girls basketball coach at Dana College in Blair, Nebraska. After one season there he has drawn attention since his Lady Vikings picked up their first conference victory in 42 tries. He was recently featured in the sports section of the Omaha World-Heraldwith a headline that read: "Dana Coach Instills Winning Attitude." The team was 11-18 this season, the best in a long time. Doug is also Sports Information Director at the college.

Even if I do say it, Doug is a fine young man, an achiever, a motivator, who reflects character and leadership. Thus it was no surprise when Kathy and I received the following from him, which I carefully edited due to space limitations. A "chain" type letter he received, he asked me to send it to 10 others:

"Read this, let it really sink in, then choose how to start your day tomorrow.

"Michael is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When somebody would ask him how he is 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, Michael was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation. Seeing his style really made me curious, so one day I went up to Michael and asked: ‘I don’t get it. You can’t be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?’

"Michael 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. Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept the complaining, or I can point to the positive side. I choose the positive side of life.’

"’Yea, right, it’s not that easy.’

"’Yes it is,’ he said. ‘Life is about choices. When you cut away 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 or bad mood. The bottom line: you choose how you live your life.’

"I reflected on what Michael said. Soon after I left to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought of him when I made a choice about life, instead of reacting to it. Years later I heard Michael had a serious accident, falling 60 feet from a communications tower. After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods in his back.

"I saw him six months later. I asked how he was and he replied: ‘If I was any better, I’d be twins. Wanna see my scars?’ I declined, but I did ask him what went through his mind as the accident took place. ‘The first thing was the well-being of my soon-to-be-born daughter,’ he said. ‘Then as I lay on the ground I recalled I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live.’

"’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, I got scared. In their eyes I read: "He’s a dead man." I knew I had to take action.’ I said: ‘What did you do?’

"’A burly nurse asked me if I was allergic to anything. "Yes, " I replied. "Gravity!" Over their laughter I told them: "I choose to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead.’

"Michael lived, thanks to the skill of surgeons, but also because of his amazing attitude. I learned from him that every day we must choose 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."

My grandson, the coach, told me to send this to people I care about. That’s what I’m doing!

Go get ‘em, Doug!