We all have to do things we would rather not do. When you have negative feelings about a task, it becomes easy to procrastinate. One simple word change helps you reframe the task and thereby cultivate gratitude. How can you leverage gratitude to get more done?
Some tasks cause you to feel overwhelmed, insecure and worry. These feelings will drive you to procrastinationville. How many times have you had to complete a task you dreaded, yet once complete, survived and thrived? You will survive and thrive again.
When you feel overwhelmed, insecure, or worry about having to complete a task you dread, add gratitude to your approach. Gratitude has many benefits, and practicing gratitude will help you get things done. Benefits of gratitude include:
- Gratitude creates opportunities for more relationships.
- Expressing gratitude improves your physical health.
- Your psychological health improves with gratitude.
- You enhance your empathy and reduce aggression when you express gratitude.
- Gratitude helps you get better sleep.
- Your self-esteem improves dramatically with gratitude.
- Gratitude increases your mental strength.
Have-to-do is the opposite of grateful
The words we use matter, but most people don’t put a lot of thought into their words. When staring at your to-do list, or rambling to your friend about how busy you are, is this how you sound:
- I have to put this deck together for the client meeting.
- I have to create a report for my boss by tomorrow.
- Next week I have to go to the customer conference and work the booth.
- I have to take snacks to the kid’s baseball practice tomorrow.
The self-limiting phrase in each of those sentences is “have to.” Have to is not having a choice. Have to is not very motivating. More importantly, have to is not grateful.
Reframe your “have to’s”:
How many of your collegues would jump at the chance to put the deck together for that important client meeting so they can shine in front of the leadership team?
How many of your peers would love to produce an important report for the boss to win some points with them?
What are the chances that some of your colleagues are jealous that you get to travel, expenses paid, to a conference, and network with other professionals?
Do you have childless friends who dream of the day they can bring the snacks to their child’s little league practice?
Change your have-to-do to get to do and cultivate gratitude
Changing “have to” to “get to” profoundly impacts how you view the task and, consequently, the effort you put into completing it. Simply reframing how you talk to yourself and others about the task will help you get it done. Additionally, changing one word changes your mood from grumpy to grateful because you are lucky you get to.
There is an honor in being asked to compile a presentation for an important client. Therefore, you are lucky you get to do that.
Your boss trusts you to put the report together because they know you will do it best. You are lucky they extend that trust to you, and you get to put the report together.
Most people will never travel for business, and yet so many people dream of doing just that. You are lucky to get selected to travel at the company’s expense and work face-to-face with the customers.
So many people are unable to have children or aren’t able to volunteer to help with their activities. You are lucky you have a child and the time and resources to get to volunteer.
I encourage you to reset your mindset on your have-to-dos. More often than not, you are lucky you get to do. Getting your mind to see how lucky you are to have a list of tasks you get to do helps you get more done and cultivate gratitude in the process.
