“Some people confuse acceptance with apathy, but there’s all the difference in the world. Apathy fails to distinguish between what can and what cannot be helped; acceptance makes that distinction. Apathy paralyzes the will-to-action; acceptance frees it by relieving it of impossible burdens” – Arthur Gordon
Welcome
back to week 3 – the first “A” in “A” Future
First, let’s look back…how did you do last week? Did you find FOCUS? Did you look back and gather up all the great
memories of your past and treasure the good ones and throw out the old? Did you say goodbye to 2013 with gusto, or
just let it roll in like every other year?
Have you accepted the future as something to look forward to? Are you taking action and getting on with the
New Year?
For a little while, I was approaching the change with great
apathy. After all, there is nothing I
can do about the hands of time changing right?
But I can always change my approach to the change. When I give up and choose apathy, I find that
I’m truly depressed and simply sit there.
I don’t like the feeling of apathy.
It is scary to me, I don’t like who I am when I choose apathy. Apathy is a great burden to bear.
I’m taking some action.
Top 5 oaths (i.e., solemn promises regarding future action or behaviors)
of Acceptance in my readiness for the big 50:
1.
I accept my body has and will continue to
change. (Oh yeah, there are aches and
pains, sags and wrinkles, freckles and speckles, glitter and sparkle, rolls and
puckers and so many opportunities to accept what I cannot change. But there are things to discover about what I
can slow down or modify in healthy ways.
I don’t have to just let those changes happen to me without a little
fight right?)
2.
I accept my rules of the house will be tested
and rewritten. (I used to be able to say
“no” or “don’t do that” to my kids and they listened to me. That was when they were little. Now, being young adults, they tend to have
some pretty good arguments or personal convictions that lead to “I’ll do it my
way now mom.” Ouch…but I have to be open
to listening to new ways of thinking otherwise I’ll look at their choices with
apathy instead of acceptance and risk losing the opportunity to grow with
them. I know there must be moments that
they wonder why the heck I’ve done some of the dorky things I do, yet, they
still love me and support me. I need to
do that too.
3.
I accept my choices in fashion will be
questionable. (Out with the old, be
selective for the new to compliment the old.
Some of my clothes no longer fit properly or are totally out of fashion
for the current century. Retro may be
cool, but not necessarily for me. I'm thinking bulky shoulder pads are for football players, not me! Plus, with the changing body, I’ll need to
brighten up the colors choices to complement the sparkles of grey in the hair. We’ll be focusing one whole blog post on
fashion in the coming weeks.)
4.
I accept I have wasted time and money in the
past. (As a body slows down due to all
the physical changes, it is easy to waste time.
That is definitely not apathy, that’s a choice. Make it a vow to take action to not waste time…that
is unless you choose to do so. I
personally think that simply choosing a goofy romance novel and a glass of wine
isn’t a complete waste of time once and a while. My favorite is losing myself in the adventures of Stephanie Plum http://www.evanovich.com/novels/plum-series/) On a serious note...I don’t know about you, but this time of year
when we set the resolution to start to clear out clutter, the first thing I
think of that stops me is, “I spent money on that, it is still worth something so
I need to hang on to it.” I argue with
myself that I should just get rid of it.
Then that darn old apathy sets in and I put it back on the shelf. I need to accept that I wasted money. The item is sucking up my time by having to
think about it. I have to accept the
fact that someone else can use it, so out it needs to go! That will free up my time.).
5.
I accept that what matters most needs more FOCUS. (This is where the rubber hits the road. Define what truly matters most to you. Every time you make a decision, FOCUS on
those key areas, and you will look forward to the future with acceptance
instead of apathy).
Thanks for stopping by!
Enjoy your moments of acceptance, avoid apathy, and look forward to the
next “A” in the Future – Anticipation.
PS – What did I learn this week in my acceptance of my adventure in photography skills? I am no longer using
apathy (i.e., the camera’s auto setting). I’m still experimenting with the Manual
setting and loving every moment of discovery.
I’m pretty sure it may be bordering on wasting some time though…
Top time waster...I took 30 + selfies - still none worthy of sharing! I did it only to record the what did I look like at 49.
FroKnows photo challenge was to take a picture of your bedroom. When I first read that, I was like, "What, that's crazy...why would I want to share my bedroom on the internet?" But then, he said, zoom in on something. I liked that idea better. I still don't know if I'm brave enough to share it on his challenge website, but, it was fun to try and find something to zoom in on in my room and frame it differently. Plus it helps me to continue learning the manual settings on the camera.
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| Major clutter clearing - this was a true test of boy I wasted a lot of money...there were many items who had truly earned their exit from the pantry. |
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| 4 garbage bags later, this pantry is way more fun to go into and way easier to find what I'm looking for - definitely a time saver! |
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| My big moment of apathy...I cannot change broken glass. Just imagine waking abruptly from sleep by the crashing sound of a photo frame hitting the floor after an extra large cat knocked it off the shelf. |
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| No worries...take a few pictures (well, I actually took 30 different angles, it was fun, but probably a waste of time) |
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| A pile of books, attempting to make a sentence out of the titles, sort of creative...? |
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| Ah...I so wish we were somewhere with our toes in the sand instead of the -27 below temps we are about to experience. |
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| There's always Copper..."Don't you take away my toy!" |
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| I'm ignoring you... |
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| Time to relax...a book, a sunny window to sit in, and a perfect glass of wine...nope, not a waste of time! |
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| The rule of thirds...one glass of wine, three chapters of the book. |
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| There's always a sunset to catch, oops the camera settings weren't readjusted...it had nothing to do with the wine, really.... |
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| The beauty of the manual setting, you can readjust and capture the colors! I'm anticipating even more opportunities to enjoy discovering my path to 50! |
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