Take for granted

Take for granted

“To take something for granted.” This is an example of an expression with one primary meaning, but there are many, many situations in which you might use it. When you “take something for granted,” you don’t fully appreciate or notice how important it is to you.

When we take something for granted—and listen, we all do it—but when we take something for granted, we assume it will always be there, we forget how lucky we are to have it. We don’t fully appreciate how lucky we are. We all take things for granted from time to time.

This doesn’t happen on an analytical level. It’s not something that’s in your brain; it’s something that’s in your heart. If you take something for granted, you don’t forget about it; it’s not erased from your memory. But on an emotional level, you don’t appreciate it as much anymore.

So to illustrate this, I’ll give you several examples of things many of us—myself included—take for granted. And then at the end of the episode, I’ll show you one slightly different way to use this expression.

Taking conveniences for granted

Let’s start with taking conveniences for granted—“conveniences” are those little things that make life easier. Many of us don’t think about the everyday conveniences we rely on, that we enjoy. For instance, most of us have easy access to the internet, where we can look up nearly anything within seconds on our phones.

But it wasn’t so long ago that, if you wanted to learn about a new topic, you’d have to find an encyclopedia or go to the library, search through a card catalog—remember those?—and read books—remember those?—to find the information. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. Today, we’re lucky to have that information in our pockets, yet it’s easy to forget just how amazing this is.

We take it for granted. We forget how fortunate we are to have this convenience. How often do you pause to appreciate having unlimited answers at your fingertips? If you’re like me, you probably don’t ever think about it—you simply take it for granted.

This is a good time to mention one thing. We often don’t realize that we take things for granted until we lose them. Have you ever lost your phone for a couple of days? Or been without internet service at home, maybe after you move or switch providers? That’s when you realize that you’re taking the internet for granted—when you lose it!

Taking safety and security for granted

Safety is another thing many of us take for granted. Many of us live in safe neighborhoods and have secure homes where we can sleep without worrying about safety. It’s easy to forget that this is something special; not everyone has that. We might not think about our safety until it’s at risk.

I remember one time early in my career, I got to the office in the morning and the door was broken and there was a huge mess inside. And a coworker—I’ll never forget this—she looked me right in the eye as I walked in, and she said, “Jeff, we’ve been robbed.”

Someone had broken in overnight and stolen computer equipment. This was an older building in downtown Chicago. There was not 24/7 security, but there was security for most of the day. We took our safety for granted; we never thought the office could be robbed! You never hear about offices getting robbed. But it happened. And safety and security became something that we thought about much more often, much more actively, after that. We stopped taking it for granted, at least for a while.

Taking health for granted

Health is another thing that people take for granted. Most of us don’t think about our health until we get sick. I don’t get sick very often, but last year I had a pretty bad case of food poisoning. For a day and a half, I was completely miserable—exhausted, dehydrated, and all I wanted was to feel normal again. I remember thinking then, I’ll never take my health for granted again.

But, of course, you know what happened! A few weeks later, once I felt normal, I didn’t think about my health anymore. I started taking it for granted again.

Taking a person for granted

We can also use “take for granted” to talk about people. When we “take someone for granted,” it means we assume that they’ll always be there for us. It’s not good to take somebody for granted. If you take someone for granted, you don’t show appreciation for their support, their kindness, or their presence in your life. This sometimes happens with people we’re close to, like family members, friends, or partners. Over time, we might stop appreciating how important they are, how much they really mean to us, because they’re always there.

Imagine you have a sibling who’s always checking in on you or a parent who’s always ready to help with little things, like cooking or repairs around the house. It’s easy to get used to that support and forget to say thank you, forget to practice gratitude.

So you get the idea. To take something or someone for granted is—it’s not like you forget, but you stop appreciating something good that you have.

Forget to confirm

There’s one other way to use “take for granted.” If you forget to confirm something, or if you forget an important detail because it just didn’t pop up in your brain, then you can use “take for granted.”

If you drive on the main highways in the United States, you’ll see a lot of gas stations. They’re everywhere. So when the light comes on, just wait a few minutes and you’ll see a gas station. No problem. There are gas stations everywhere.

Well, not everywhere. I’m thinking about a stretch of highway, I-75, in Florida between Ft. Lauderdale and Naples. And there are very, very few gas stations. The highway goes through the Everglades, a protected wetland, and there isn’t much development. And I wound up almost running out of gas in the Everglades. I just took for granted that there would always be gas available. And then when the tank was almost empty, guess what? There weren’t gas stations around.

So, you can say, “I took for granted that…” and then something you just assumed would be true. I took for granted that there would be gas stations. And that means, I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t think to confirm it. I didn’t think I had to confirm it. I took for granted that there would be gas stations…and I was mistaken.

So now you know “take for granted.” What did you learn today? If you stop appreciating something valuable, you take it for granted. You might take your health for granted, if you don’t appreciate how lucky you are to be healthy. Or—and please don’t do this—but you might take a person for granted if you don’t appreciate how much that person means to you.

And then finally, you can use this expression with something you forgot to confirm or check. Like how I took for granted that there would always be gas available along the highway.