Before the kids joined us at this fantastic event (BTW – we’ve got amazing art in the Twin Cities!), we attended the launch party for Northern Spark. An exciting and eclectic art crawl which was held in St. Paul last night. The launch party was in a tent, with beverages and food. It’s the kind of thing where you might get introduced to someone you don’t know and you get the pleasure of striking up a conversation with a total stranger. Just my cup of tea!
One woman I was introduced to started talking about her days of selling real estate. It sounded like the “past” so I assumed she was retired. She asked about my (oh-so-boring) career and I asked her what was on her plate at this point in her life. She told me that she was a life coach.
Now, there are many definitions for “life coach,” and I didn’t so much care about what kind she was, I just wanted to know what that meant in terms of her philosophy on life. Her face lit up with that question and she proceeded to tell me that her whole focus in life and in coaching, for more than 20 years (see, makes sense that I might think retirement!), is two words:
Acceptance and Acceptance.
Here’s my take on her philosophy: there are only two things you really need to do in life. Two things that lead to everything else. The first is acceptance of yourself. You have to accept who you are, where you are and accept where you are going. Yes, you can and should have goals. A process or plan for changing that which you don’t like about your life. But, you must have acceptance of yourself first to really make changes.
Second, you have to accept others. You have to accept and love their flaws, their differences and their effect on you and your life. You have to accept why they are in your world and why the leave. You have to understand that our differences are also our similarities (getting pretty deep for my first 1/2 glass of wine!).
Many of my blogs have been on this topic and it was a good reminder to me that life is fairly straight forward. Work can be complicated, managing our children (and setting them free) can be complicated and even our love relationships can be complicated. But if we focus on these two words – Acceptance and Acceptance – it’s really not all that complicated.
Food for thought as you spend another rainy day in paradise!
Enjoy your Sunday!
theyearof50 