Edmond's Challenges

Dear loving people,

J.K Rowling says in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets “It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.”  Wow! Interesting note that I watch Harry Potter isn’t it? Yes I do. Our abilities only enable us execute the choices we have made.

I have this friend Edmond who made a tough choice to be the most positive people I ever knew. He was always in a good mood and always had something encouraging to say. He was owner and manager of a clothing shop. If any of his five employees had a bad day, Edmond always helped him to look on the positive side of the situation.

 Even as a motivational speaker, Edmond’s attitude truly amazed me. So one day I asked him: “How can you be so positive all the time? “. He replied: “You see, every morning I tell myself, that I have two choices for that day – to be in a good mood or in a bad one. I choose the good one. And when something wrong happens, I can be sad and angry or I can learn from it instead. I choose to learn. Thus I choose the positive side of life”. I said: “It is not that easy“. He replied: “Yes it is. Life is all about choices. You can choose how people or situation will affect your mood, your life.”

One morning Edmond left Yaounde for Douala to collect a consignment of goods and as fate will have it, the bus he took, had a ghastly accident on the way. He was seriously injured, and almost unconscious then he saw a group of guys come up from nowhere to the accident scene and instead of helping them, they were rather emptying the pockets of the victims into their own bags. Edmond had a huge sum of money with him that was taken away and the thieves left the scene at the end of the operation, abandoning the victims to their fate. Fortunately, Edmond was quickly found by a rescue team and brought to the nearest hospital. After many hours of long intensive care, Edmond was released home.

When I met him a week later, I asked, what were his thoughts during the accident and the robbery. “I thought firstly that I should not have traveled with such a huge amount of money on me”, he replied. “Then, when I laid on the tarred road, I thought about my choices in this case: a choice to live and a chose to die. I choose to live.”

I asked, if he was scared. Edmond continued: “When they wheeled me into emergency room and I looked at the faces of the doctors, I got truly scared. I knew, that I needed to do something. So when the nurse asked me, if I was allergic to anything, I replied “Yes”. Doctors and nurses stopped working and waited for my answer. I took a deep breath and yelled “Accidents.” They started laughing and I said: “My choice is to live, operate me as I am alive, not dead.”

 
Today, Edmond is alive owing to the skills of his doctors, however his amazing attitude played an important role too. I learned from him, that every day we should choose to live fully no matter what.

In the same way, if you have made the choice to become successful in life, to become the best father, mother, wife, husband, entrepreneur, teacher or whatever it is you want to become. Stick to your plan and path no matter what.

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it” Says Charles R. Swindoll