By Halley Griggs
One mindset I return to again and again — as a coach, a parent, and a human — is this:
I don’t have to. I get to.
This week’s Monday Motivation is about training your mind to show up that way — even when things are hard. Especially when they feel impossible.
Language matters. When we tell ourselves we have to do something, there’s a weight that comes with it — obligation, pressure, exhaustion. But when we reframe it to “I get to,” something shifts. There’s light. There’s purpose. There’s gratitude — even in the hardest moments.
At the end of her senior year, Emerson Pattillo — a player who endured more than her fair share of trials — handed Ciara and I a gift at the conclusion of our final TTL session. Inside? A bracelet. Emerson had been through multiple knee surgeries, setbacks that tested her physically and emotionally. She couldn’t always be on the field, but she showed up anyway. She supported her teammates. She supported her sister. She controlled what she could control.
The bracelet read one word: grateful.
I never took it off.
Just over a year later, life handed me a season I didn’t see coming — one that included both my own hospital stay and Charley’s. Through all of it — moments of fear, uncertainty, exhaustion, and eventually, moments of hope and joy as she found her footing and kept climbing — I wore that bracelet.
It grounded me. It reminded me every day that even in the hard, there is still something to hold onto. Every time I looked down, it brought me back to the same truth:
I don’t have to do all of this.
I get to.
And what a gift that is.
So, as you head into this week — whether you’re excited, anxious, or staring down something you know will be tough — try this reframe:
You don’t have to show up. You get to.
You don’t have to practice, train, or compete. You get to.
You don’t have to support your teammates or your family. You get to.
Even on days when things don’t feel easy — when you’re tired, injured, healing, or just figuring it out — there is still meaning in being here, in showing up.
And when I think about our little TTL family, that same sense of gratitude keeps coming back to me. At our final session this season, Ciara and I had the chance to gift every player a bracelet of their own — one simple word stamped on each of them: grateful. It felt important to close the loop. To pay Emerson’s gift forward. To offer the same reminder she once gave us: that gratitude isn’t something we save for the easy days. It’s something we wear, carry, and return to — grounding us when things are good and lifting us when things feel heavy. A quiet reminder on your wrist that even on the hardest days, there is still something to hold onto.
So, this week, even when things feel hard or heavy, pause and remind yourself:
You don’t have to.
You get to.
Let that be your Monday motivation. 💛🥍