Brain Food #640
What will you get to do today?
Thoughts of the day
If you spend your entire time in life thinking of it as something filled with obligations, with the odd occasion of having something to look forward to, it will pass you by easily, mercilessly.
There are 52 weeks in a year. If you spend your week waiting for the weekend, that is 260 days wasted. If you spend your year waiting for your holiday, that is roughly 48 weeks wasted.
What if every day can be made to feel special?
A trick to overcome this is to think of what plans you might have, or even chores you have to do, and switch the narrative from “I have to”, to “I get to”. This mindset shift flips most of the daily activities we perform into opportunities, not obligations. We get to work out. We get to go to that important meeting. And then there are the moments where the model stands as a reminder of what we should be thankful for, what we take for granted. We get to pick up our child from school. We get to visit our parents.
Of course, there will be moments that the model doesn’t work. No one “gets to” take out the rubbish. But through a small shift in perspective, our small, mundane lives can take on an entirely new significance.
What will you get to do today?
“In all affairs it's a healthy thing now and then to hang a question mark on the things you have long taken for granted.”
— Bertrand Russell