What will be your greatest challenge in life?

Before I tell you what it is, I want you to think about what’s your biggest challenge right now.

Okay, are you ready?

Your greatest challenge in life will be your inability to accept things the way they are. Or said differently, things, people, and situations are not how you want them to be.

That’s it.

This incongruency between how things are and how you would like them to be can apply to all areas of your life. Think about the broad four pillars that your life is built on. Your career/finances, physical health, relationships, and mental/spiritual wellbeing. These are the areas where you’ll face your biggest challenges.

So how should you handle the challenge of misalignment or incongruency that you will inevitably experience during your lifetime?

One solution is to approach life with radical acceptance. Psychologist Tara Brach coined the term radical acceptance, and it essentially means accepting life on life’s terms and not resisting what you cannot change. It’s about saying yes to life as it is.

While this might sound like a passive approach to life, it’s not. It’s actually a very active, intentional approach because it requires you to understand and acknowledge the difference between what you can and cannot control. And then apply your energy appropriately towards only that which you can control.

Radical acceptance is a skill that takes time to cultivate. But not to worry, life will provide you with plenty of opportunities to practice and improve your skill. Your most significant impediment to learning radical acceptance will be your own personal resistance to doing so.

So, the next time you find yourself in a situation that you wish were different, try using radical acceptance. While it’s not a panacea for all of life’s problems, it’s an opportunity for you to ground yourself before you decide if you really need to act or radically accept life the way it is.

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