The Changeable,
The Unchangeable,
and The Unacceptable
“Change the changeable, accept the unchangeable, and remove yourself from the unacceptable.” Og Mandino
All these more than 40 years that I have been a Mandino fan, I have admired his simple, down to Earth concepts. Og is a great philosopher of the recent times.
Using our Energy
Analyzing this phrase I see that it may be difficult at times to follow the advice. Most people waste a lot of energy and time trying to change what they can’t or should not try to change and in the opposite side; they don’t do enough to change what they could and should.
Principles and Values
Now the perception of the “Unacceptable” may be different for each individual. It will depend a lot on our principles and especially in our Values. What is acceptable for some may be unacceptable for others. In a social environment though, we need to rise our awareness of what is unacceptable for others, since most of the time we need to get along and avoid offense.
Focusing on Ourselves
One of the most valuable principles I learned from Earl Nightingale was that of analyzing what is worth our time and effort to change. Change is not easy and as I have repeatedly said, Change is a bad word. Most humans react against the slightest thought of change, though we all are in favor of improvement, and that is what we should devote our attention to. It is something we must do for our lives and it benefits all others in our environment.
Changing Others!
One of the many unchangeable things that we can frequently embark on: changing or better said: trying to change others! For some reason we tend to think everybody should be just as good, efficient, thorough, as we are. Wrong! All the other people are different, better or worse, from us. The art of human relations is to accept them, and if possible help and support them. Recognize their positive features and use those in mutual benefit.
Amado Nervo:
A poet my mother liked to read: Amado Nervo, finished a book by saying:
“Accept and deal with people just as they are, help them if you can, defend yourself from them if needed, but do not ask for them to be the way you want them to, since you are not and will never be what they would like you to.”
About the Unacceptable
As I said above, we each have our own definition and boundaries to what is or not acceptable. The only one intelligent action to take when we face it, is to get Out of it! We need to do that in a graceful, polite, and courageous way so that we do not offend anyone but do not allow for a situation to keep us hostage. Our Self Esteem is in play. Take some action!
