The One Thing We All Struggle With Most…

Core Article: The one thing we all struggle with most…

Paragraph I’m Pondering: “Things falling apart is a kind of…”

Powerful Affirmations to Inspire: “Every action I take brings…”

Book Review: When Things Fall Apart by Pema Chodron

Cool Stuff: Where did “trick or treat” come from anyway?

AI Info & Resources: Grammarly’s name is changing to ‘Superhuman???’

The One Thing We All Struggle With Most…

How many times do you face things changing in a day, month, or year in life and in business?

Maybe you resist, fight, or question it like I do sometimes. Or you cling to what’s familiar, even when it no longer fits or works.

As entrepreneurs, resistance can show up in your marketing, your ability to get new clients, and even your own growth.

Yet, there’s one simple word that can bring us back to peace, a word that I honestly have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with: acceptance.

Have you ever done something you knew was going to be one of the hardest and most emotionally wracking things you had to do?

And there’s no way to get out of it, you simply have to arm yourself with the best self-care tools you can, have your support system on standby, and then take the plunge?

Well, that was me last weekend.

My mom, who’s 86, is suffering from dementia, and we had to move her to a memory care facility. So I had to get on a plane and help my brothers.

There’s one word that all of us needed that weekend, and we struggled on all levels to find it: acceptance.

Why is it that at times this feels like the hardest word in the vocabulary to wrap your head around?

It’s like the Serenity Prayer: asking God (your higher power, or what you choose to call it),

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things that I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

Sadly, moving my mom, there was no acceptance on her part that where she lived had to change. It almost broke me.

And what it did was help me realize that when I break down and resist change or refuse acceptance, it doesn’t move me forward.

Yet, even resistance needs to be accepted. That word ‘Acceptance’ is the magical elixir that makes change possible.

So what is it about us humans that we resist change?

It’s not just in life; it happens in business, too. When a launch goes sideways, a client changes direction, or a team member leaves, you can either resist… or breathe into and accept what is.

The day I was flying back home, they cancelled my flight. Talk about resistance, all I wanted to do was simply get home and away from the emotional upheaval of the move.

It was a harrowing day with weather issues and not knowing if I’d make my connection, realizing I would probably have to spend the night in another hotel and wouldn’t get home until the next day.

That’s when the magic of acceptance changed everything.

On my weather-delayed flight to San Francisco, I ended up in a middle seat so I could be closer to getting off the plane and try to make my last connection.

Finding my seat, I braced myself, sandwiched between two strangers, and negotiated my physical space. Then something shifted. I found myself sitting next to this big guy named Mike, a surgeon, who ended up knowing a lot of the same doctors my spouse worked with. Wow, didn’t see that coming.

It was then I realized, I’m gonna be ok. I’m sitting next to a friend of a friend. AND, I’ve got a hotel in San Francisco that has rooms and a free shuttle from the airport, and I’m already booked on the next flight home in the morning.

I accepted that it was highly likely I wouldn’t make it home that night and made my peace with that.

Then my seatmate, when I shared that I’d be spending the night in a hotel and wouldn’t get home until tomorrow, decided it was going to be his mission to help me home that night.

Using his phone, he looked at the airplane app and showed me that the flight home, which I thought I was going to miss, was delayed. He said he’d let me out quickly when we landed and gave me the route to my departure gate. Then he added, ‘You just need to run like I stole something.’ 🙂

So the beauty of acceptance and the kindness of strangers was that I made it home that night, guided by something bigger than me. And by wonderful people like Mike, who were invested in helping.

The lessons of acceptance are many. It’s the magic elixir that can make your present circumstances okay and can bring peace and contentment along with it. Then it opens the door to growth, change, and moving forward.

Acceptance doesn’t change what’s happening; it changes who you become as it happens.

In the end, it’s about what you can do to take care of yourself when faced with change, the kind you and I tend to resist or find unacceptable, and how to get to that place of surrender.

Maybe the miracle of acceptance is seeing something with a new lens.
I made a friend on that plane, someone who may become a client.

Not knowing, accepting, and letting go of resistance to what is can be the magic of a whole new minute, hour, day, month, or lifetime.

Where in your business, or life, are you resisting change right now?

What would it feel like to accept it, just for today?

I’m always here for you, hands at your back.

Big Hugs,

Shannon

Paragraph I’m Pondering

“Things falling apart is a kind of testing and also a kind of healing. We think that the point is to pass the test or to overcome the problem, but the truth is that things don’t really get solved. They come together and they fall apart. Then they come together again and fall apart again. It’s just like that. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.”

~ Pema Chödrön, When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times

Powerful Affirmations to Inspire

“Every action I take brings clarity, growth, and success.”
“Money flows to me from known and unknown sources, effortlessly.”
“I release comparison and anchor into my unique journey”

Book Review

When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
By Pema Chödrön

Cool Stuff

In case you’re wondering where in the world “Trick or Treat” came from, here’s the answer.
Why ‘True Crime’ is at an all-time high, and why can’t we help ourselves from watching it???
Cool Nerds Marketing has an interesting article about “Why we buy and How Brands Can Keep Up.”

AI Info and Resources

Go figure, AI models may be developing their own ‘survival drive’, researchers say… Reminds me of the phrase “Do you want to play?” from War Games….
Here’s an interesting cream-filled sandwich marketing play: Oreo will start using an AI tool to market its ads next year. Hmmm. Seriously? I’m surprised they still use ads! Ummm, I think almost everyone’s heard of an Oreo… Ok, maybe it’s just me…
Sometimes I just don’t understand branding and why companies make these weird decisions. Grammarly bought Superhuman, a suite of AI tools including email. Talk about diluting their brand. Then again, their brand is getting beat up by AI…

Weekly Photos

This is a bit blurry photo of the San Francisco area, right after takeoff. Fog was the culprit of the delay, you can just see it easing and all the lights…
While I was in Houston moving my Mom, apparently, my brothers informed me the next morning that we had a tornado warning at 3 am. Hmmm, apparently I must have slept through it! I did not hear that warning, and I was on the top floor of the hotel. Good thing nothing happened… 😉
There’s Emma doing her favorite thing on Halloween last year, helping us give out all the candy to the kids who come to the door. We get a lot of kids in our neighborhood. Sadly, she will be missed terribly by all the kids (And Alice and me) who loved seeing her. And Alice and I.
I’ve been following Daniel Pink on LinkedIn, and he always has an interesting take on NeuroScience (and more) that resonates. This one is about complaining, judging, or criticizing. I didn’t get a screenshot of the whole post. Apologies. Do check his books and him out on LinkedIn. I love all his books. The latest I’m reading is called The Power of Regret. He also wrote Drive: The Surprising Truth of What Motivates Us, and one of my favs, To Sell is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others.
Can’t get enough of Shasta Bally in the fall with all her clouds and bumps.
This is an interesting heart-shaped rock I found along the Sac. River. It was pretty big, or I might have taken it home. 🙂
This pic is going down as one of my all-time favs. Shasta Bally in the early morning clouds and the quiet reflection in the Sac River.

NEW: P.S. New Invitation – I’m going to launch my next Soulful Marketing Accelerator Co-hort in late January. 🙂 If you’re longing for like-minded community and ready to move through your fears to grow a purpose–driven business rooted in authenticity and aligned with your dream clients… Welllll. Go here to be first in line when I reopen the doors again. Would love to have you.

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