Get To.

I read earlier this year the 20 Greatest Lessons in Life. Read it. It's good, simple, quick read, and there is at least ONE chapter that will resonate with anyone and make a difference.

one of the chapters has stuck with me for a while now and I hope it sticks forever. For that matter another chapter has started to stick too and I really need to glue it to myself. More on that one later.

The chapter subject for this post?

Get to versus Have to.

?

See, the author teaches in college and spent every year teaching different subjects, one of them entailed that all of life is a choice. Nothing in life is forced. We all get up every day, make choices every day, and go about our life.

But what happens when we start to replace "have to" with "get to". It's enlightening. Seriously. I have been working "get to" into conversations with my closest friends, though most are unaware of this subtle difference. With one person in particular we often would correct each other with "get to" when we'd get off track and get pissy or unthankful for the choices we all Get To make in life.

It's VERY powerful. Seriously. Try it.

You don't have to go to college, you may get to.
You don't have to go to work, you GET To... seriously man, speaking from experience and from the standpoint of someone who loved loved loved what they did for a living, this is true.
You don't have to do your homework, you get to.
You don't have to clean the house, you get to... okay, that's one's hard to swallow.
You don't have to go to the store, you get to.
You don't have to spend time with your family, you get to.
You don't have to discuss some really freaking difficult and hard things in life, you get to.

I know, it's altruistic to think that it's really this easy. But in times of trouble, attitude is everything. And replacing the 'god I have to get up this morning' with 'thank god I get to get up this morning' can make all the difference.

NO, it is not that easy. Changing attitudes is never simple, it takes weeks of consistent practice. And it's hard. Very hard. I've learned this recently in ways I never expected to learn in this lifetime. I'm not happy I went through what I did these last few months, but I did get to, get through it, mostly.

For a while I had a great partner helping me to look at things this way as I also helped him too with the same thing. For now I'm on my own trying to do this and it's hard hard work.

But I get to do this work.

Think about it.

(more to come on another of the 20 Greatest Lessons, a few chapters have made a difference for me... the next one, attitude is everything... my additional spin on that... the attitude of those around you is also important and impactful)