Personal Statements: Not ‘I have to…’ but I ‘get to…’

Every so often I come across an idea so simple and so brilliant, that it changes the way I look at almost everything. For me, this is one of those ideas. And for you, I hope it helps you take your first brave steps in writing your UCAS Personal Statement.

This wonderful nugget of usefulness comes from James Clear’s million seller Atomic Habits, and it’s hidden away in a small section in Chapter Ten. It’s brilliant, but I’m not sure even James himself knows how potentially powerful it can be across a wide range of challenges. His idea, you see, is to change just one word. Instead of saying ‘i have to…’, use ‘I get to…’.

James writes about transforming a burden into an opportunity. So daily activities such as cooking dinner go from ‘I have to cook dinner for my family’ to ‘I get to cook dinner for my family’. It’s a small mindset change, but a potentially powerful one. Suddenly the burden of cooking becomes an opportunity to choose your favourite food, introduce your family to something new, and to impress them with your cooking skills!

So what if we look at some of the less mundane parts of our lives, like school and study? Perhaps when you are asked questions about your own lives, and you are telling people about the classes you do, instead of saying ‘In Maths, I have to understand advanced calculus’, you could say ‘In Maths, I get to understand advanced calculus’. Instead of ‘In English literature I have to read Shakespeare’ you can say ‘In English Literature I get to read Shakespeare’. Already it’s sounding better, more positive.

And the thing about having to do something, is that when you are embellishing the story (as you will, when you are talking to your friends and family) you will naturally add something negative. The story becomes ‘In English, I have to read Shakespeare, and it’s sooo dull!’, or ‘In Maths, I have to do advanced calculus and it’s sooo difficult’. 

But if you change the ‘I have to’ to ‘I get to’, you’ll find you naturally add something positive instead, or it just doesn’t sound right. So you get ‘In English, I get to read the extraordinary, groundbreaking plays of Shakespeare, and they are sooo interesting!’, and ‘In Maths, I get to understand the amazing world of advanced calculus, and its fundamental importance in science’.

What if we apply it to things outside of school? ‘As part of my football team, I have to train three times a week, even when it’s raining’ becomes ‘As part of my football team, I get to train three times a week with my incredible team-mates’.

‘In my part-time job I have to be in the check-out for four hours’ becomes ‘In my part-time job I get to be on the check-out and meet loads of interesting people’.  Just one word can help you view your challenges differently, and help you see the positive side!

What does this have to do with UCAS Personal Statements? Well, if you are right at the point where you are about to start yours, or you are helping someone else with theirs, you can put this idea into practice right away.

You see, you are probably thinking ‘In my Personal Statement, I have to tell the admissions tutor why I want to do the course, and I have to show what a great student I will be’. That seems like quite a difficult thing to do, and no-one wants to start writing something that difficult!

But what if we put it another way? ‘In my Personal Statement, I get to tell the admissions tutor why I want to do the course, and show what a great student I will be’. That sounds better already doesn’t it?

And what if we embellish it even more positively? ‘In my Personal Statement I get to tell the admissions tutor my very own story about why I want to do this course, and I get to show them what a great student I will be through the interesting and cool things I have done, in school and beyond’.

Now are you a bit more excited to tell your story?

What next?

For loads of other hints and tips on How to write your UCAS Personal Statement, download my free guide here.