Acceptance is a form of freedom

Resignation – I don’t see any possibilities, and nothing I do will make a difference. Resignation carries a negative, heavy charge. 

Acceptance – it is as it is. I may not like it, but I am not willing to do anything about changing it. There is a neutrality to acceptance, a zero charge.

Doubt – can I pull this off? Doubt is charged but is alive and active. 

Resignation can be the heartbreaking door to acceptance. You show up and show up and keep getting battered in showing up, until one day you stop showing up. There is a flavour to resignation that is bitter. A helplessness. Even a form of victimhood. In time, this may lead to acceptance, where the difference is a clear choice to no longer show up.

To live in resignation is to live a small and miserable life, always the victim of non-action. Almost always, non-action is a lie. At the most basic level, changing how we show up and participate changes everything. The choice of how we show up and participate is one of the very few things we can control, no matter the circumstances.

Acceptance is a form of freedom. There is a lightness to acceptance, based on our conscious choice. To accept ourselves fully is to be at peace. That doesn’t mean that we do not seek to evolve, develop and become more aware. Acceptance of others is a gift to them, as it is to ourselves. Acceptance of a circumstance is not the same as resignation, nor does it mean that we do not seek to change the circumstances. 

Acceptance and victimhood do not live together. Victimhood carries the taint of helplessness and the need for attention.

Doubt is healthy and normal. In its earliest manifestations, it asks us to question basic assumptions that rightly need questioning. However, doubt unchecked can be a poison that contaminates a whole system.

Almost anyone who has had a breakthrough after years of consistent, steady action will tell you that they doubted until the very day before the breakthrough. The day of the ‘instant’ success, nothing was particularly different. Until everything changed.

At any point, we always have a choice. To think otherwise is to resign.

Photo July 14th 2025, Article published August 7th 2025