Thursday Thought Provoker:
Imagine if more people did more of what they had to do than what they wanna do.
I mentioned this in a brief post on my crackbook account recently and it really made me ponder further on this thought. It seems more and more these days that people are quick to tell you they haven't done or will not do something because they didn't or don't want to do it. It is almost as if it is acceptable to not accomplish a task simply because you did not feel like it. For real? It is no surprise that most of these people have very little accomplished in terms of professional growth and success. As a parent of young children and educator of teenagers, I expect these excuses from adolescents because they have yet to learn but it's alarming the number of adults that feel this way.
As a father I hope to teach my children the difference between 'have to do's' and 'wanna do's'. I believe this is already being instilled in my 5 year old based on some conversations we have had about her gymnastic career. We enrolled our children early in gymnastic classes partially because of my belief in how beneficial the sport is to physical development but mainly because at around 13 or 14 months my daughter walked across the back of our sofa. We have pledged to not become the pushing overbearing parents so we often check with our daughter as the demands of the sport increase.
On our way home from the gym one night recently, we talked about her upcoming transition from development to team. We informed her that she would soon 'have to' go to practice 3 days a week for 4 hours a day which meant she would also 'have to' give up other activities like dance at her school. We then asked her if she 'wanted to' still move on to team. After a few minutes of thought she responded, "Well I don't 'want to' give up dance but I don 'want to' do the floor routine and I 'have to' do it all if I 'wanna do' the floor." Needless to say I was very proud.
At a very young age she is beginning to realize the correlation between the 'have to do's' and the 'wanna do's'. Life, mature life that is, tends to be filled with more 'have to do's' than 'wanna do's' and typically the only way to be able to do the things you 'wanna do' is by taking care of the things you 'have to do'. This simple truth crosses multiple facets of life from business, to sports and even academia. It really comes down to honestly assessing your priorities to determine what you really 'wanna do' and what you 'have to do' to accomplish what you 'wanna do'. While my daughter 'wants to do' dance at her school, she 'wants to do' the floor routine competitively more and she realizes what she 'has to do' in order to make that happen.
Imagine if more people did what they 'have to do' in order to do what they 'wanna do'.
