Living a life you love starts with accepting where you are right now while striving for the future you want.
I point this out not so you can use this against yourself or beat yourself up, but so you can see you have the power to make changes. If you got yourself here, you could get yourself out of here.
You have three choices when circumstances are going on around you. You can
- Resist them.
- Accept them.
- Change them.
First, consider if you can change what is happening? Are you able to change the circumstances? What are you doing or not doing that may be contributing to this situation?
If you can make changes, then great, do that. If you can’t, then consider:
How might you be able to accept them? Where is some good in this situation? Or who are you willing to be?
Your last option is to continue to resist them. Of course, we all know that “resistance is futile,” and IDK about you, but I prefer to take action… which brings me back to numbers one & two- can I change the circumstances? If not, then is there another action I can take here? If not, then I can learn to accept them.
Let’s use a recent example: the current influx of people in the Valley. Last Saturday, my husband & I drove around for 2 hours trying to find parking & a place to paddle board on Flathead Lake. The third place we went still had no parking, and I lost my patience. So, I stepped myself through this process.
The circumstance: No parking was available near Flathead Lake at three locations.
Resist: I wasn’t going to continue to resist because I didn’t want it to ruin the beautiful day.
Change: I considered- is there anything I can do to create parking at those places right now? No.
Is there any other action I could take? For now, keep trying, and for next time, plan more, leave earlier, etc.
Accept: I realized that all these people also want to have a good time and enjoy the weather. I understand they want to visit or move here- it is a beautiful place. Luckily, I can choose to go home rather than get on the lake, or there are other lakes to try.
Accepting these circumstances, I enjoyed the rest of the day and loved my day off in the Flathead.
