You’ve likely heard me talk about having a growth mindset before. Just as it’s important to have a growth mindset, it’s also important to have a gratitude mindset. There are a number of practices and habits we can take on in order to foster a gratitude mindset. But one of those practices is simply changing the words that we tell ourselves and changing the words that we tell others.
I actually learned this practice from Jon Gordon a few years ago. I tried changing my words for a period of a year, and I found that I was much more effective in everything that I did.
What’s this simple change? Changing the words, “I have to” to “I get to.”
Instead of saying, “I have to go to work” I say, “I get to go to work. Wow! I’m blessed to have a job, and I’m blessed to have an income.”
Instead of saying, “I have to go to my kids’ soccer game” I say, “I get to go to my kids soccer game. Wow! I have a great opportunity to spend quality time with my family.”
Instead of saying, “I have to pay the bills” I say, “I get to pay the bills. Wow! We live in a world with lots of modern goods and conveniences that are all making our lives easier (well, sometimes 🙄 ), and we have access to all of those.”
And when I’m at the gym in my bootcamp class, instead of saying, “I have to do burpees” I now say, “I get to do burpees!” And now I’m a lot stronger and I can do even more of them. And I’ve stopped getting sick after doing burpees too.
Changing “I have to” to “I get to” doesn’t sound like it would have that much of an effect, but it truly does. Think about it. Throughout your life there’s nothing that you really HAVE to do. Now there’s consequences to your decisions and consequences to your actions when you don’t do certain things, but we don’t really HAVE to do anything.
But saying you “have to” do something places a feeling in your subconscious mind that feels like an obligation – it feels like a requirement. That feeling is usually negative, and it may slow you down from doing your job. Or it could even cause you to not do the job as accurately as you want to.
Now saying you “get to” do something places a completely different feeling in your subconscious mind coming from a place of gratitude, from a place of appreciation. That’s a lot more positive feeling, and sometimes that helps you to do your task even more quickly. Or it helps you to stay focused even more and make sure that it’s done accurately, the right way. And as a bonus – as people see and hear you going about your life with positivity and with gratitude it becomes contagious. It helps them become more positive, and then we all win.
Even Colossians 3:23 tells us:
Whatever you do, work heartily as if for the Lord, and not for men.
Did you read that? It says WHATEVER you do – not just the things you like to do, not just the things you want to do, not just those things that fulfill you. It’s whatever you do and that means everything. If you look at it that way, it means whatever we do are things that we get to do, things that we’re blessed to be able to do.
So once you make this simple change in the words that you tell yourself, and in the words that you tell others, you’ll start to notice a huge difference in how you’re becoming more effective in everything you do. And others will notice it too.
