Acceptance
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference. ~ The Serenity Prayer
Most of us are not short of courage or of wisdom. We are brave and wise beyond our years, and always have been. We have fought hard to change what and where we can, and we use our wisdom and street smarts every day to survive and to thrive.
The serenity and acceptance part of Reinhold Niebuhr’s Serenity Prayer, however, is often harder to come by for us.
One of our biggest struggles is accepting that there are some things – some people, some events, some disappointments – that we cannot change. We couldn’t change them then and we can’t change them now. All that happens when we try to change what is not ours to change is that we exhaust ourselves, both physically and emotionally. We get more disappointed and more disillusioned. More frustrated and more frayed. It doesn’t get us anywhere useful or good.
I invite you to think carefully about the things that you cannot change. Become aware of where you are wasting your time and energy. Recognize the things over which you have no influence or control. Identify them and try to move towards acceptance. And by acceptance, I mean coming to terms with the fact that there is nothing you can do about it/them.
You don’t need to accept what you can’t change, but you can accept that you can’t change it/them.
Because when you accept that there are some things that you have no influence or control over, that you cannot change, then you can spend your time more productively on those things that you do have influence or control over. Like yourself; the choices you make, the paths you take, the goals you reach.
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Tags: acceptance | accepting what we can't change | adult child coacg | Change | change what you can | coaching. coach | the serenity prayer
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