Each month I meet with the same group of students for lunch and conversation. These past two months we've been reading a book, The Positive Dog, by Jon Gordon. There was a short chapter in the book we discussed this past Wednesday about the differences between "Get to and Have to."
When we develop a habit of saying "we get to" instead of "we have to," we begin seeing more of the positives in our lives. A student example might be to say "I get to go to school today" versus "I have to go to school today."
This simple change in wording helps our minds to focus more on what we're grateful for in our lives. As I mentioned to my students during our conversation, there are kids in other parts of the world that are not able to go to school and would love the opportunity to go and learn.
I encourage you this week, as I did my students, to start saying "I get to..." and see if that changes your perspective on your life.
When you make this type of thinking a habit, you begin to live a life of gratitude.
Share this except from Gordon's book.
A man goes to the village to visit the wise man and he says to the wise man, "I feel like there are two dogs inside of me. One dog is this positive, loving, kind, and gentle dog and then I have this angry, mean-spirited, and negative dog and they fight all the time. I don't know which is going to win." The wise man thinks for a moment and he says, "I know which dog is going to win. The one you feed the most, so feed the positive dog."