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When you accept things the way that they are in this moment, good or bad, you free yourself to enjoy everything in your life.

A lot of people use the word surrender to describe this business of acceptance and I think like a lot of “spiritual” words Surrender can be a trap. Surrender is sort of what you’re after in acceptance, but it lends itself to the idea of doing nothing. Surrender is not apathy. What you’re after in surrender is simply acceptance. Acceptance is letting everything be just as it is and with that, in the moment, making your next best move.

When you accept even the things that you don’t want, you are re-affirming the universal truth that everything comes from within you, to you. Everything is a projection of your soul through the mind. This is pretty tough to accept on both ends. We all like to take credit for the good things in our lives… “I did that right there… see that?” But when it comes to the seemingly random or bad events that affect us from the outside, we don’t want to accept that it’s all coming to and through us. Because it is coming from a place that is beyond our ability to talk about and put it into a neat little box of understanding. First you have to accept that there’s this thing that you’re infinitely connected to that’s way bigger than you as an individual, but at the same time it is simply the bigger you. After that it’s about accepting everything that comes to you in the way of experience. There’s great liberation in acceptance. It’s called responsibility.

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In the army and at West Point, I learned a great principle of leadership: Seek responsibility and take responsibility for your actions. As a leader you’re taught to take full responsibility and not make excuses, no matter what. I remember how profound a feeling this was. When something would happen that was completely beyond my control, I was forced to step up and say, “no excuse, sir.” For example, one time, one of my soldiers took it upon himself to simply change the frequency our radio was on. My commmander couldn’t make contact with us and he handed me my head. I couldn’t sit there and say, “Well sir, it wasn’t my fault because Private Snuffy changed the frequency without my knowledge. I simply had to say, “Yes Sir, No Excuse Sir.” Ultimately I was the leader and anything that happened under my command was my responsibility, even if it seemed absurd or unfair. I have to tell you that having to take responsibility for things like that makes you all powerful. It makes a statement to the universe that you’re going to handle this life, no matter what’s thrown at you, seen or unseen, logical or illogical. When you’ve got that attitude, nothing can stop you. Taking full responsibility for all events in your life no matter what the cause or consequence makes you God.

If you go back to the idea that we’re all one quantum field of consciousness, then you can see that you are connected to the one force that created you. With this in hand, if you apply the above concept of acceptance and say yes to it all, good and bad, you become one with that force that created you and therefore you become omnipotent– all powerful. You become god. Taking responsibility for everything in your life is the ultimate acceptance. Acceptance may not feel so great. If your spouse decides to leave you, accepting the heart break that comes with that may seem unbearable, but over time that acceptance will allow you to heal and it has been my experience, that when you apply acceptance, especially in tough situations, what follows is almost always something much better.