YaGottaWanna

YaGottaWanna

YaGottaWanna the plaque said. It was the first thing a person would see when they opened the door to the downstairs bathroom at our farm home where we lived during my teen years. Why Mom chose to hang it in the bathroom I never knew, but my family and I all remember that plaque clearly to this day. Many times I have thought of that sentiment and expressed the thought “But I just don’t wanna” or one of our daughters would say something to the effect that they had lost their “wanna” in regard to a particular situation.

YaGottaWanna. Having the “want to” mentality makes a huge difference in our lives.
Frequently I have heard myself telling my strong-willed teen or young person that when they decide they want to do something about an area of their life or a problem they are avoiding it will put an end to the problem. Until they decide to “want to” it is my job as their parent to do all I can do to help them get to that point of having the “want to”. That includes but certainly isn’t limited to loving discipline, correction, warnings, reminders, and letting them face consequences instead of rescuing them.

YaGottaWanna. Have you ever seen how fast a tedious or unpleasant job can get done if you really want to get it done? It is so easy to avoid or let a job drag on and on or let an issue in our life that is causing us real problems drag on and on because we just don’t want to deal with it. When the time comes we decide we WANT TO see a change, we WANT TO deal with an issue then we are usually surprised at how the job wasn’t near as bad as we made it to be in our mind or the solution was not nearly as bad as we anticipated it to be. The difference was we had found our WANT TO and exercised it.

YaGottaWanna. Let’s face it; some days I don’t WANT TO. There is no good reason, I just don’t want to do some things. I try to call it “burn out” or rationalize that “I really need a vacation or at least a break” or some other excuse. The fact is I just DON”T WANT TO. At those times, I have a choice. I can continue in the “Don’t Want to” mindset and wander along aimlessly accomplishing nothing only to feel exhausted and defeated at the end of the day and find myself started on the road to discouragement and depression or I can cry out to the Lord to help me find the WANT TO I seem to have misplaced and go on an out and out search for it until I find it.

YaGottaWanna. Some days I have to seriously hunt for my WANT TO. I have learned I usually find it in one of two places; either I find it in a time spent alone with the Lord basking in His presence and focusing entirely on Him instead of all the whirlwind of my life or I find that elusive WANT TO is just sitting along the way waiting for me to catch up with it as I discipline myself to face the demands of the day even though I don’t want to. When I decide to go through the day in search of the missing want to I look in many places. My first stop normally is to deal with a long neglected task. Sometimes just the decision to deal with a particular item is enough to help me locate the WANT TO I have been missing. There is something about dealing with an unfinished task or a task I have been putting off for way too long that seems to energize me to tackle other tasks facing me. When the Want To disposition finally decides to manifest itself, obstacles, hindrances and difficulties seem to melt away.


YaGottaWanna. I am finding the need for a Want To mentality to be very necessary in overcoming bad habits or making necessary but perhaps unwelcome changes in my life. If I don’t have the Want To mentality, I find I often unconsciously sabotage my efforts at what I am trying to accomplish. Without the Want To frame of mind, obstacles appear out of nowhere, hindrances crop up with every hint of progress. I have found at these times that it helps to quickly think of all the reasons why yielding to this “I Don’t Want To” frame of mind is not a good idea. I admit there are times I have to choose to Want To, whether out of duty, love, necessity, obedience, or some other reason. I have found out the hard way that by yielding to this I Don’t Want To frame of mind only allows it to grow stronger and become more firmly entrenched in my spirit.

YaGottaWanna. It makes all the difference!