Serenity Prayer

Back when I used to work at QVC, we ran a programme called the QVC Difference. Essentially a 2 day residential course aimed at increasing your self-awareness, and focusing on how understand others better. Part of the course focused on the Serenity Prayer which came to mind yesterday, and thought I'd share it with you.

"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, And wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; Taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world As it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that You will make all things right If I surrender to Your Will; So that I may be reasonably happy in this life And supremely happy with You forever in the next. Amen."

Read into the prayer what you will, but for me, there are a few strong messages.

The serenity to accept the things I cannot change. If only this was easier to do. I can accept there are things I cannot change. But with serenity? Few can do that, and do it well. I used to have serenity in abundance in my college days, but something happened along the way which slowly beat it out of me.

Courage to change the things I can. I'm all about change. It's my job for crying out loud! And to do so with courage, that's a continuing journey I find myself facing. I have some very supportive and amazing people around me - both online and offline. I can change - if I want to - because I know I need support in order to do so.

Enjoying one moment at a time. There are daily stories about sudden life changes we never expect to happen. For this, and this alone, I am constantly grateful for this life I have, and never take it for granted. I kiss my wife, and my kids every morning without fail before I leave the house as I never know what will happen when I walk out that door.

Trusting that You will make all things right. Faith is a difficult one to sound-bite, so I shan't. I have faith, and sometimes I have to hold on to it for dear life.

So that I may be reasonably happy in this life. I am. Around me I see all manner of wonderful, difficult, harsh, joyous, sad events. And I wonder - am I happy with where I am right now? Yes. Yes, I am.

I don't think the Serenity Prayer resonates only if you are Christian, or only if you practise a religion, the message is a good one, and for this reason, I hope it resonates with you.

If you don't like your situation, change the situation

I'm going through stuff at the moment, both professionally and personally. It's all a bit frustrating as essentially I don't feel useful.

This isn't about self-doubt, I'm doing a good job of stuff, and I know I am, I'm just not feeling useful. And that's annoying. Keeping this to the confines of the work situation, there's things which need to happen which I think I need other resources to enable a good job of stuff. And in fairness I've been a bit reluctant to be pro-active about making them happen.

Those of you following me on Twitter will know I'm running a course on 'Making a Personal Impact'. Part of this means letting others know about being pro-active. And immediately I'm left with the thought, I'm not practising what I preach.

So here it is. I've known I need to do better, and I could just bitch about what I'm not happy about, but that's not going to get me anywhere. I can change the situation though so it meets my needs. How? By taking a look at each of the things I'm currently doing which I think are effective, and evaluating how truly effective those things are.

I hate self-evaluating. It's a pain in the arse. But that's the thing about change, you have to start with an evaluation. Only then can you move forward. You can't change the situation unless you have a good assessment of what you're doing now.

And when I say change, I don't mean make sweeping changes. Look for the things that have meaning for you. Do the things that will enable the change you're looking for. You're responsible for what happens in your life. Listen to those around you. Hear what's going on. Understand it. Question it. If you can act, then act. If you can't. it's because you haven't understood the real issue.

And I don't mean change the situation in a sweeping or tangential move. You made a conscious decision to enter your situation. You thought/believed/hoped it would mean something new/interesting/challenging for you. If it's not, you can make it into what you want it. But you have to be the one that does it. No one else will make it happen for you. And I don't mean bulldoze through disrupting or damaging people in your path. Make it meaningful for everyone concerned.

I've written before about Intelligent Behaviour, and this is a another important facet of what that behaviour looks like. Act intelligently so that the behaviour you are expecting is what you are displaying.