Acceptance

Today and tomorrow per a readers request we will look a couple of words that we have looked at earlier and will explore them a little more. Acceptance for many people can be a hard concept to deal with. Like the 5'6" 20 year old who loves basketball but at his height he has a hard time competing with others his age. He has to accept that he probably isn't going to grow any taller. So does that mean he shouldn't play basketball any longer? Absolutely not. That means you accept the fact that you are this tall and if I am going to get better I have to find other ways to compete like become faster, jump higher, have greater body control, distribute the ball in new ways, and shoot quicker and more accurately. Just because you accept something doesn't mean that there aren't other ways to get around the challenge. Look for what you can do and you will usually find a way. Check out the movie Rudy if you haven't seen it yet, a true life story of finding a way after accepting certain limitations.

Another example is accepting that someone doesn't like you or treats you rudely or worse. We all long to be liked and appreciated. You can let it eat you up, make you angry, or even make you depressed, especially if it happens to be a family member. You can accept the fact of how they treat you, but you don't have to accept how you feel. You control you so take charge. If you are around that person, surround them with kindness, make them feel better, it will make you feel better too. You can accept the fact that you have done your best to make them feel better and what happens from there is out of your control. This does work as I have experienced it.

Be accepting of the things that you can't control and look for avenues to make lives better, theirs and yours. You'll be glad you did. A little bit better each and every day!

“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself-and especially to feel, or not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at any moment is fine with them. That's what real love amounts to - letting a person be what he really is.”

Jim Morrison