Dancing with Reality

God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.

In their book, Designing Your Life, Bill Burnett and Dave Evans write:

“Here’s a little tidbit that is going to save you a lot of time — months, years, decades even. It has to do with reality. People fight reality. They fight it tooth and nail, with everything they’ve got. And anytime you are arguing or fighting with reality, reality will win. You can’t outsmart it. You can’t trick it. You can’t bend it to your will. Not now. Not ever.”

I've spent a lot of time — months, years, decades even — fighting this idea. Don’t “the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes” show that another world is possible?

And yet without respect for reality, that other world is not going to work. How many New Year's resolutions have failed because they were a radical departure from one's routine, rather than a realistic nudge in a new direction?

We're not going to flip a switch and change our character defects. Past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.  

Still, it would be a sad state of affairs if we remained stuck in place. It's better to dance: