What do you "have to do"? Get from "have to" to "get to" in 2015

What do you "have to do"?  Get from "have to" to "get to" in 2015.

I have previously written about how having a positive mindset can change your entire day.  Here I want to share my thoughts about the difference between having to do something and getting to do something.  2 years ago, my son was a bar mitzvah.  During the ceremony, he spoke on the bimah and read from the Torah.  As part of the tradition, I was asked to come to the bimah to share some wisdom with him and the congregation.  For months I planned my speech...what words of wisdom was I going to share at that moment.  I spent a tremendous amount of time trying to find the right words.  One day, when he was complaining about having to practice so much, it all came to me.

When I spoke to my son on the bimah in front of our entire family and all our friends, I spoke of the difference between "have to" and "get to" when it comes to life.  It is a subtle change in mindset to get from "have to" to "get to" and it's all about a positive attitude.  So, for my son, getting up on the bimah to recite from the Torah can be viewed as something extraordinary that many don't get the opportunity to do.  I even looked at the opportunity to get up on the stage with him as a reward for my hard work as a parent, while my wife, who is much more introverted was scared to say anything publicly and looked at the opportunity, not as a gift, but as a chore. 

In life, there are examples of things that we don't want to do, that through the courses of our days we just "have to" do, but almost all can be thought of in a more positive light.  Today, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. to get to work after having 2 weeks vacation.  I could have thought of it as a chore to "have to" wake up so early, to sit in an hour of traffic to get to work.  Instead, I looked at it as an opportunity to make a difference.  Today, I got to wake up early, I got to come to work, and I got to make a difference in someone's life.

While we can all be pessimistic some days, today we can choose to be more positive and live life as if we have this gift...the gift of making a difference in someone's life.  As educators, we get to experience this every single day, we just have to open our eyes to it and allow it to happen.




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