The Wisdom to Know the Difference

Twelve-step programs have a saying: Take what you need and leave the rest. Imagine how fun and easy life could be if you started applying this same advice to change!

Change what you can and leave the rest.

If something within your control bugs you—i.e., where you live, how you spend your time or your daily helping of triple chocolate mousse torte—by all means, change it. But if what irks you is beyond your control, like taxes or your mother-in-law, please, let it go already.

Today, make two lists of the things you’d like to change: Those that are within your control and those that aren’t. Take a final look at the items in that second list and then be done with them. Take a deep breath, exhale and blow all those pent up emotions right on out. There’s no point fighting what you can’t change.

If it helps, think like a Buddhist: Acceptance, surrender and non-resistance.