Reality Acceptance Mantra
No matter how much something could inconvenience us, and no matter how hard it would make our lives, it doesn’t guarantee that bad things still can’t happen to us. All that should be will be and all that should’ve been already was. Accepting this reality doesn’t mean we have to like what’s going on and that we don’t do anything about our problems. We are not victims of reality, but we influence its outcome. We can try our best to solve problems and to go for what we want, but nothing in life comes with guarantees. Striving to achieve our goals simply betters the odds of a positive outcome. However, there are forces greater than ourselves at work at any given moment. We are not entirely in control.
How many times have we been in a situation that hasn’t gone our way? Doesn’t it feel like we don’t get what we want quite often? Having inconveniences is just a natural part of life. Living on a planet with roughly 7.2 billion people all of whom have different goals and ambitions, it’s understandable that we’re bound to clash here and there. We all come from different religions, cultures, ages, genders, sexual orientations, and life experiences. Now how could we possibly live in a world that infinitely gives everyone on the planet everything they’ve ever wanted simultaneously? Despite acknowledging all of our conflicting motives and taking into account that all of us have an extensive history of not getting what we want, we continue to expect that we always will. It’s as if we never learn from the past because we insist that the universe “owes us” something. We’re not mindful of the important realization that the universe never did and never will owe us anything.
We can want things to go our way but there’s a difference between wanting and expecting. When we want things we generally try to achieve them and accept that just because we want them doesn’t mean they’re a given. Expectations are contrary to wants because they make us think that we’re so special that the universe must infinitely bend to our every whim —just because it’s in our plans. Let’s pursue our goals hoping that everything works out rather than always expecting that it does. We are special in our own right, but not so special that the universe must meet our every demand. Life is still an amazing adventure and we can continue to live a life of happiness and fulfillment despite not always getting what we want.