Build Resilience and Acceptance for a More Balanced Life

A year and a half ago, I wrote my second book, “The War Within Us.” In this book, I reflect on the 21 precepts of The Dokkōdō (translated as The Art of Walking Alone), written by the renowned swordsman Miyamoto Musashi over 400 years ago. What I found most intriguing about my study of these precepts is their direct relevance to our lives in 2024. Musashi emphasized the importance of helping his students accept the events around them as simply part of life. He advocated for the development of a resilient mind and spirit.

These qualities are crucial for fostering harmony in both our work and personal lives. In today’s world, resilience is more important than ever, and the ability to accept what we cannot control is essential for managing stress and finding balance in our daily routines. In “The War Within Us,” I explore how cultivating resilience and embracing acceptance can empower us to tackle various challenges—both external and internal—and ultimately create lasting harmony in our personal and professional lives.

Key Themes from ‘The War Within Us’

Resilience: Resilience is not about avoiding challenges; rather, it’s about developing the strength to face them head-on. It can be cultivated through the right mindset and a continual desire to improve. In many ways, resilience is linked to the art of kaizen, which emphasizes incremental improvement. Together, they help us navigate our paths more effectively.

Acceptance: The ability to accept things we cannot change while focusing our energy on what we can control is a vital motivator for our well-being. When we learn to view the events around us as neutral occurrences—not as personal attacks—our stress levels decrease, allowing us to experience more ease in our lives.

Work-Life Harmony: Building resilience and practicing acceptance leads to greater harmony in our lives. This harmony enables us to be more productive, less stressed, and more present. These are goals I strive to achieve daily.

How to Cultivate Resilience & Acceptance

Here are a couple of suggestions for you on cultivating resilience and acceptance in your life. You can also find many other suggestions by simply entering the header for this section into your search browser.

• Face one small discomfort or challenge head-on, daily for the next week or longer
• List one thing you cannot control today and one thing you can, then focus on the latter

A real-life example from my life of how resilience and acceptance lead to positive change was when I realized at a young age that I was different and needed to put in extra effort in order to be like the other kids in school. You see, I was born with Hip Perthes disease. I ended up having to go to multiple doctor appointments from the age of about 3 or 4 until I was a teenager. My hips didn’t form like everyone else’s so I didn’t get to learn how to ride a bike until I was almost 7. But I didn’t let that stop me from doing what I wanted, just ask my mom :). The point I am trying to make is, that if you simply accept the situation for what it is, challenging or not, you are much more likely to make it through it. If you throw a pity party because of what is happening, all you are going to do is make things take longer than they would if you just would have accepted it in the first place.

Take Action

So, I will invite you to practice resilience or acceptance by trying one of the tips I shared. Reply to this email with how you plan to build resilience this week, or if you’ve ever experienced the power of acceptance. I would love to hear from you.

Looking forward to the next issue

I wanted to share an exciting update: I am currently working on a new book. I know I just published “5S Mastery” about two months ago, but I believe this upcoming book will be a fantastic companion and follow-up to it. While I can’t reveal the title just yet, I wanted to give you a sneak peek into the first chapter so you can get a sense of what to expect. Stay tuned for my next email, where I’ll share a few excerpts!

I will leave you with one of my favorite quotes on acceptance…

“Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will – then your life will flow well.” – Epictetus, Enchiridion, 8