"Professor William James, the father of applied psychology, has been dead since 1910. But if he were alive today, and could hear this formula for facing the worst, he would heartily approve of it. How do I know that? Because he told his own students: ‘Be willing to have it so… Be willing to have it so,’ he said, because ‘…acceptance of what has happened is the first step in overcoming the consequences of any misfortune."~ Dale Carnegie from How to Sop Worrying and Start Living

Have you read Loving What Is by Byron Katie? Brilliant book. (You’ll dig the Notes.)

Basic idea? She says: “I realized that it’s insane to oppose it. When I argue with reality, I lose—but only 100% of the time.” Hehe. I love that. And: “If you want reality to be different than what it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark.”

You want to stop worrying and start living? QUIT ARGUING WITH REALITY. Or, in the words of William James: “Be willing to have it so.”

Arguing with reality is one of the absolute BEST ways to RUIN your life.

As Deepak says in his great book The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success : “This means that your acceptance of this moment is total and complete. You accept things as they are, not as you wish they were in this moment. This is important to understand. You can wish for things in the future to be different, but in this moment you have to accept things as they are.”

Of course, in challenging times, we want a better future (whether that’s 5 seconds from now or 5 days or weeks or years), but we MUST accept what is. From that place, the tension melts, the worry evaporates and we connect to Source and have all the strength we need to embrace the moment and take the next constructive step toward creating our ideal life.

And the best part?

We can enjoy THIS MOMENT.

No matter how challenging it is.

As Marcus Aurelius says in his classic  Meditations : “So here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not, ‘This is a misfortune,’ but ‘To bear this worthily is a good fortune.’”

Finally, before ending, here's another quote by Dale Carnegie from How To Stop Worrying And Start Living “George Bernard Shaw was right. He summed it all up when he said: ‘The secret of being miserable is to have the leisure to bother about whether you are happy or not.’ So don’t bother to think about it! Spit on your hands and get busy. Your blood will start circulating; your mind will start ticking—and pretty soon this whole positive upsurge of life in your body will drive worry from your mind. Get busy. Keep busy. It’s the cheapest kind of medicine there is on this earth—and one of the best.”