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Writer's pictureGhassan Abughazaleh

Serenity Now

Updated: Nov 3, 2020

Bad things happen to good people. It’s as simple as that. We didn’t choose to wake up to a Pandemic. It just happened. It’s almost like getting into a fender-bender with that guy in the car behind you at the traffic light - who was texting while his car rolled into yours. You didn’t cause it to happen. It just did. Don’t get me wrong. It can certainly be very unsettling. As a result, you could choose to fly off the handle and give him a piece of your mind, or count to 10, take a breath, and calmly exchange insurance details – wilfully choosing not to allow this unexpected event ruin the rest of your day going forward. Of course, that is easier said than done. However, the fact remains that it could be done. It’s a choice after all.



We tend to forget that some things are beyond our control. It’s pretty much the same with life. Sh!t happens. It’s how we deal with that particular situation that sets the mood for what happens next. There’s a short prayer I find very empowering to recite during these CovidDays of uncertainty. As a professional coach, I find myself sharing it more frequently with my clients these days, and I would like to share it with you now. It is one that you may have heard before in one form or another and is found in almost all theologies worldwide. It goes something like this:

God grant me the SERENITY to accept the things that I cannot change. And the COURAGE to change the things that I can. And the WISDOM to know the difference between the things that I can and cannot change!

If you choose to recite it in prayer, that’s fine. If you choose not to, that is also ok and totally up to you. But there is no denial that it takes a basic level of wisdom to differentiate between what we can change and what we cannot. Once we realise the randomness of it all, we can take a knee, a deep breath and try to avoid giving ourselves a stroke. By doing so, we can resign to the “Que sera sera” mindset (“Whatever will be will be,” theme song of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1956 film - The Man Who Knew Too Much).


Now, I’m not saying that you surrender to becoming a couch potato and let the world go by without any effort to participate – of course not. Simply try to let go of those things beyond your control and focus on directing your energy on the things you can do something about. That’s when you will have achieved the wisdom needed to attain the much-needed serenity that we all so desperately seek these days.

 

© 2020 G-Force Coaching - www.gforce-coaching.com - Instagram: @gforcecoach

serenity

/sɪˈrɛnɪti/

noun

the state of being calm, peaceful, and untroubled.

"an oasis of serenity amidst the chaos of the global covid19 pandemic surrounding us!"

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