"Put On A New Face"
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PUT ON A NEW FACE In this article:
A New Look As I walked into the room, my wife was watching Good Morning America. Diane Sawyer was interviewing Connie Culp, who had the first face transplant in the United States at the Cleveland Clinic. They compared pictures of her face before and after the surgery, and my wife and I were amazed at the transformation. Happy To Be Alive The real transformation was not on the patient's outside; it was on her inside. Connie was chosen by the Cleveland Clinic to have the surgery because of her courage, humor, and love of life. All three traits were obvious as I observed the interview. She expressed how happy she is even though the face transplant looks nothing like her former appearance. She is simply happy to be alive. Look At The Monster Connie Culp recounted an incident when she was grocery shopping, and a little girl yelled to her mom, "Look at the monster." Connie asked permission to speak with the child, and showed the child a picture of her driver's license so that she could see what she looked like before the tragic event of losing her face. The little girl smiled and said, "WOW!" Why Worry? Connie shared that it does not matter what you look like, you will always worry about something. She pointed out that too often we judge people by what we see on the outside, instead of looking at what is on the inside. Her guiding principle is to not focus on the negative when there is so much positive that we can stress. The Third Degree A good friend of mine, W. Mitchell, had a similar experience. Mitchell, as he likes to be called, had a motorcycle accident and received third degree burns over three-quarters of his body. He lost some of his fingers, and his face was severely burned. In another accident years later, he was paralyzed from the waist down. Why Me? Mitchell related that his turnaround came when he was in rehabilitation and feeling sorry for himself. A nurse asked him to give encouragement to a young man who was depressed because he was injured in a parachuting accident and would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Mitchell's initial reaction was to question why she would choose him to encourage someone, while Mitchell himself obviously needed encouragement.
From Ten Thousand To Nine Thousand As Mitchell wheeled over to the young man, he had an epiphany, not only for the young man, but for himself as well. He told the young man that before their accidents they could probably do over ten thousand things in life, but since their accidents, they could only do nine thousand things. Mitchell asked him if he was going to focus on the one thousand things that he could not do, or if he was going to work on becoming the best that he could be at doing the nine thousand things that he could still do. And then he said, "It is not what happens to us in life that is important, it is what we do about it that counts." Today W. Mitchell is one of the most respected and requested motivational speakers in the U.S. and around the world. Mirror, Mirror On The Wall OK. So maybe you should take a look at yourself in the mirror. What do you see? You are looking at a world of opportunity. You are looking at the person responsible for your future, and a success waiting to happen. What you see is up to you. I Like It, I Like It As my beautiful wife was looking in the mirror recently, I heard her saying, "I don't like this about the way I look, and I don't like that about the way I look." I related to her the time we gave a gift to one of our grandchildren - the gift that she spent a long time selecting, as well as wrapping with special paper and ribbon. When we presented it to our grandchild, he ripped open the packaging and remarked that he did not like the toy. We remembered our disappointment at his reaction. I told my wife to look again into the mirror and tell God that she did not like the present that He gave her. She looked into the mirror and said, "Thank You." One Of A Kind You are very special - one of a kind. Others know it, but do you know it? It is time to have a heart-to-heart talk with the person in the mirror. Consider Connie Culp and W. Mitchell and how they chose to handle the lemons that life gave them. Besides your negative mental attitude, what is holding you back? We all have bad days, but it is a serious concern when those bad days turn into weeks, months, and years. Reflections Of A Winner Return to your mirror of life and say a great big, "Thank You." © 2009 Joe Bonura & Associates, Inc. |
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REPRINT info: Joe Bonura About Joe Bonura His background is unique. Joe owned and operated a highly successful advertising agency for 18 years. During that time, he found his advertising campaigns were more effective when he educated his clients in the areas of sales and service. He conducted training seminars for his clients as added value. Word spread that Joe was a quality speaker and more and more people asked him to speak. The demand became so high that he sold the agency to three of his associates to start his own speaking and consulting company, Joe Bonura & Associates, Inc. Joe is past President of the Kentucky Speakers Association and a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), a prestigious designation earned by only 8% of the 3,600 member National Speakers Association. Joe presently serves on the board of directors of NSA. He is author of the audio learning systems "Three-Dimensional Selling®" and "Turning Customer Satisfaction Into Customer Excitement®." He is author of the book Throw the Rabbit—The Ultimate Approach to Three-Dimensional Selling. Click here TO ENGAGE JOE BONURA FOR A TRAINING SEMINAR AT YOUR COMPANY
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