Acceptance vs Compromise & (52 days)

This morning when I started to write my son came to the room and asked what was I doing. I told him last Thursday I missed writing hence I want to post my weekly zine before I start my day. To which he said, “Ma, you should share two experiences today as you missed last Thursday or write a mega article on Mahashivratri; but don’t miss a day.” As a natural response, at first, I laughed but then thought what he said was actually right.

So here come my two learnings in this Zine as I missed sharing it the last time.

Today’s first topic is about acceptance vs compromise. This takes me back to the memory lane when I had just started working. There were a lot of things in the organizations, that I worked for, which were not in place either process wise or people wise or technology wise. Whenever I would question or share my distraught with anyone around me whether a peer or a senior – 90% of the people would say, “This is how it has been, you many want to adjust.” And trust me I never heard the word adjust I heard it as compromise and that put me in further discomfort. And then came marriage, like all Indian mom and dad even mine told me, “Do try to compromise, that is the key to a long married life.” 

It was after a very long time, once I understood the meaning of the word acceptance, I felt I didn’t need to compromise with everything around me. My acceptance of the fact that no one or nothing is perfect made me more comfortable with imperfections. I accepted myself as an imperfect human being, that doesn’t mean I did not try to improve myself or what I did. What I now did judiciously was to choose the imperfection I wanted to work on, and go slow on the imperfections which could wait. Once my self-acceptance improved, I experienced that my acceptance levels of others also had become better and I no longer carried the heavy bag of compromise on my shoulders.

When you compromise, it leaves you with a feeling of being a victim but when you learn to accept, you not only open yourself to your inner self but also to others : their reality and their ways of thinking or processing information. With acceptance you become mentally stronger every day, while compromise drains you. Acceptance is like water, flows with you, compromise lights an uneasy fire within you (Ref Image).

Have an accepting week ahead...

Just an anecdote: One day Michael Phelps’s coach asked him would you be ok to train on Sunday. Michael immediately said yes. The coach replied, “Son, with this you just got yourself 52 days of extra practice as compared to your competition.” And these continuous 52 days per year made a great difference in Michael’s performance and he being where he is. Thanks to John Livesay for sharing this last evening, during a webinar. 

Second learning – 52 days. Little extra effort being put consistently makes a very big difference in performance. And with this I am on track of my 52-day journey of weekly zine, edition 16-17 being published together.

Have 52 days of something that you always wanted to do…