Beautiful Life Made Easy: "Get to"

Sometimes I need a shift in my thinking. I need a little pick-me-up and I need to purposely seek out ways to make different situations feel a little less overwhelming, difficult or tiring. I like to be inspired by others. I like to be inspired by what has worked for others and then actually put them into practise. Something that I read this week really got me thinking and completely inspired me...

The idea was that you need to turn all of the difficult moments in life from "I have to", to
"I GET to". Sounds pretty simple. Sounds pretty cheesy. But I love it.

When I read this, it immediately brought me back to our days of endless sleepless nights with Mya. Being woken up (at times), every 45minutes and on a good night every 2hrs for over a year completely killed us. I remember one night at 3am, after not having slept at all that night and endlessly rocking our crying baby in my arms, I literally had to remind myself that I wasn't dying. My entire body felt like it was falling apart, drained, exhausted, sore...possibly the worst feeling I have ever felt. But I got through all of those really rough nights by shifting my thinking and instead of feeling sorry for Terry and I, I felt grateful.

Through the screaming and crying late at night, I reminded myself that there were people out there who would give anything in the world to take my place, rocking their own baby in their arms...screaming or not. There are people out there who would give anything to be kept up all night long if it meant that they could have a child of their own. How lucky both Terry and I were to be in the position of a baby wanting us, needing us and crying for us. This thinking is literally what got both Terry and I through those incredibly tough months. (And for the record, we're now blessed with a 20month old who sleeps 10-12hrs a night straight...so for those out there who are feeling like it will never end...I promise you, it gets better).

So when I read the whole idea of shifting your thinking from "I have to" to "I GET to", it really resonated with me, since I realized that I could use it through all of the other tough moments or times that life throws at us...just as I did when Mya was a wee baby.

For Terry and I...

We get to wake up every day ridiculously early when Mya cries for us in her crib.
We get to change her dirty diapers.
We get to take her to the park at 7am since she just can't ever wait to start her day.

For others, it might be that you get to wake up early, pack a lunch and get ready for work every day--can you imagine the amount of people who would literally do anything to have a job that they have to get up for each day?

This little switch in my thinking has completely made me take the frustrating, hard, tiring moments in my day and instead feel grateful for them.

I just love when I read something that clicks for me...and this one certainly did.

*******

And on a different, but somehow similar note, something else that I'm grateful for?...my dad. He finished painting the ugly little side table that I found the other week at a thrift store (for ONLY $6!!)...and it's ready to go into our new baby's room. He used the same process of sanding and painting as he did with the baby's new dresser. But this time the whole side table cost us about $12. Brilliant.

Here is the before pic...