The most important skill you need to be happy and successful is acceptance. It’s great to want to make things better and improve ourselves. The problem arises when we think that we need to wait for something to happen in order to be happy. How many times have we said “once I get that promotion life will be great” or “Life is almost perfect; now I need to find a boyfriend.”?
Let me say this again: I think it’s great to want things. But what if we accepted things and people as they are now?
Some Examples
- What if you accepted that your kid wants to be a musician and not a lawyer? What if you accepted that different people find happiness through different routes?
- What if you accepted that the little things that annoy you about your spouse are what make them who they are? What if you accepted they’re “part of the package”?
- What if you accepted the effects of time on your body and your significant other’s? What if you stopped trying to stop time?
- What if you accepted that this morning traffic is bad instead of wishing that it weren’t?
Acceptance Equals Peace
When people fight, they do it because they want to convince each other that their way is the best way. What if you could accept that you have a position on an issue and other people have different positions? What if these positions were neither better or worse, but just different?
The Ultimate Question
Forget for a second everything you want. Think about what you have, what you do and who you are. Can you be happy with that? Learn to accept things for what they are and a whole world of happiness will be waiting for you.