Acceptance

On a bicycle ride, around the world, my friend Aden stopped a while in a West African village to help build a bakery. He said: It Took us several months to build the bakery. We made the bricks from crushed anthills. Every day the village children came to help. None of the kids had shoes on but one happy little guy always wore one sock – no shoes, just a sock. He was about 10 years old. I called him One Sock.

Eventually, my curiosity got the better of me. I said, “One Sock, tell me about this sock you always wear.” He said proudly, “My mum washes it every night. I wear it every day.” I said,” Yes, but why do you wear one?” He seemed surprised y the silly question, and then he smiled broadly and said, “Because I only have one.!”

Perhaps you are broke right now. Perhaps you have lost your job or lost a loved one. Maybe you are sick. You say, “I just don’t know what to do.”

Here is the first thing to do – and the only thing to do. You accept where you are.

To turn things around you first make peace with your situation. Forget about blame, forget about guilt, forget the “what ifs”. Progress depends on acceptance. Acceptance doesn’t mean. “I want to stay here.” Acceptance means: “This is where I am – and now I move on to what I want.”

Instead of, “My husband is a gorilla and I’m stuck with him”, it is more like, “My husband is a gorilla. What a perfect learning experience! I now realise I deserve better treatment.”

      Instead of, “I’ve lost all my money. If only I hadn’t invested everything with Honest Eddie’s Equity Fund”, you say, “I am where I am. I made it once, I’ll make it again.”

Imagine you are overweight and you want to become thin. If you say:

·      I’m not fat, or

·      It’s my mother’s fault that am fat, or

·      My sister is fatter, what happens? You stay fat.

But there’s another option:

·      I am fat. I like myself whether or not I’m fat. I now choose to lose 50  kilos.

You accept where you are. Now you can move forward.

·      Acceptance isn’t giving up. Acceptance is recognition that, “This is a part of my journey.” Very often means, “Right now I have no idea why this had to be my journey.” Very often it means, “Right now I have no idea why this had to be a part of my journey but I embrace it anyway.”

In a Nutshell

Acceptance is power