Attitude Shaping and Shifting: "How Are You?" Part 2

Pat Croce is right. My friend Joel Hedland, who is an associate pastor at my church has a buddy from Phoenix who was riding a motorcycle up in the Denver area a couple of weeks before I am writing this. He hit a road hazard that sent him flying off his bike head on into a semi truck or tractor trailer rig. The first one to reach him was a women who brought a blanket to throw over the body, assuming he was dead. When she got to the body and started to cover it up, she heard this voice, “Hey lady, I’m still alive.” A doctor was second on the scene and immediately called for a helicopter to airlift to the hospital. He had to have a leg amputated, but miraculously he is back to work as a supervisor for a landscape company only two weeks after the accident. According to Joel, his friend has not lived the most religious life in the world but while re-counting his memory of the incident, he clearly remembers flying through the air and experiencing a presence that told him, “I’m protecting you.” He also said, “Hey Joel, don’t feel sorry for me, I’m doing great.”

So how do you normally answer the most common of all questions? Over the years I have collected positive responses to the question, “How are you?” or “How are you doing?” Here are some in my collection. Many are from famous or semi-famous people.

Awesome
Blessed
Better than I deserve (Financial Guru Dave Ramsey on his call in radio program)
Celebrating another day in paradise
Double thumps up
Excellent
Fantastic (Actor and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
Great (Pat Croce)
Happy to be alive
I'm so happy I could eat a banana sideways (Speaker, Zig Ziglar)
Incredible
Just like I’m going through a swing door on someone else’s push (Speaker, Zig Ziglar)
Life is good
Magical
On top of the world
Outstanding
Phenomenal
Spectacular
Super
Super good, but I’ll get better (Speaker, Zig Ziglar)
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Terrific
Thumbs up
Unbelievable (Sales Trainer Tom Hopkins… says this answer cover it either way… bad day/good day
Victorious
Wonderful
Xtra-Good
Yes (Usually with a fist pump)

In the movie When Harry Met Sally, Meg Ryan’s character Sally Abright is sitting across a deli table from Billy Crystal’s character Harry Burns. After a long drawn out, now famous theatrical portrayal of “excitement”, an older woman at the next table tells her waiter, “I’ll have what she’s having”. Why don’t we all lead lives that encourage others to want what were having? It can start with our response to the simple question, “How are you?”