My friend Jim recently told the story of a service station attendant in Watertown, N.Y., where summer lasts about two weeks and the winters are brutally cold.

This particular attendant offered full service — windshield, oil check, etc., no matter what the weather. Most people would have filled the tank, collected the money and then retreated to the warmth of the office.

But not this attendant. He delivered the same service, whether it was a beautiful spring day or the most forbidding day of the winter.

In other words, he decided that full service was simply the way things were going to be. He did not let circumstances dictate how he would live his life. He decided what his standards were going to be. And in his case, the standards were very high.

Whether you know it or not, every day you are making the same choice as the attendant did. You choose your standards. Maybe they won’t be as high as the attendant’s was, but you are choosing nevertheless.

You decide whether you will merely get by, or whether you will be good, or whether you will be peerless.

It’s pretty clear that all these choices — day after day, week after week, year after year — add up to your destiny.

Choose to be great, no matter what the circumstances.