Get to

This post is about lists.  We love lists at our house.  They help us remember even the small stuff, free up mental space once they get written down, and it is soooooo satisfying to mark something as complete or cross it off the list.

Although they are very helpful, they can be very detrimental.  They can be easily seen as to-do lists.  They're not.  They're get-to-do lists.  It's easy to forget the 'get'.  It's very important not to.  I do the dishes most nights.  I put that on my list.  They are there waiting for me most nights.  I do them.  On the nights they are on my to-do list and I forget the 'get', it's a chore and I can't wait to be done.  On the nights they are on my get-to-do list, doing the dishes is so pleasant.  I think much of the time that these dishes got dirty in the first place because we had food and we'll probably use them again tomorrow and I'll probably get to do this again tomorrow night.

This attitude shift applies to so much in our everyday.  It makes chores I have to do into pleasant things I get to do.  I don't want to confuse this shift with some annoying always look on the bright side attitude.  It's not that.  It's often a small shift and it grows over time.  It takes effort to shift attitude, but it's possible.

Taher, remember you get to.