The Power of Acceptance
(Written by guest contributor Kevin E. Houchin Esq.)
This article is the first of a two-part series on benefiting from The Power of Acceptance. Watch for Part 2 on the ability to receive and surrender and how it can help you to succeed.
What if I told you that your business was the same as every other service and consulting business on the planet? Would you believe me, or would you start pointing out differences? Most entrepreneurs start pointing to differences. After all, we’re programmed to spot distinctions and use those distinctions to create new products and services. However, the real power to build comes when you spot the similarities and allow yourself to use those fundamental building blocks to your benefit without weakening the principles by picking them apart.
What if I told you that your business was the same as every other service and consulting business on the planet? Would you believe me, or would you start pointing out differences? Most entrepreneurs start pointing to differences. After all, we’re programmed to spot distinctions and use those distinctions to create new products and services. However, the real power to build comes when you spot the similarities and allow yourself to use those fundamental building blocks to your benefit without weakening the principles by picking them apart.
One of these principles is what I call The Power of Acceptance. This power is inspired by the following quote:
“The most profound choice in life is to either accept things as they exist or to accept the responsibility for changing them.” – From The Universal Traveler by Don Koberg and Jim Bagnall
We make this profound choice every second of every day of our lives. Power comes from making the choice consciously.
You’ve heard that your business needs purpose, focus, mission, vision, and all kinds of buzzwords that may take you off on one tangent or another. What all of these paths are trying to do is ask one question, and it’s the core question of your life AND your business:
“What problem do YOU accept the personal responsibility to change?”
This is a profound question. It’s at the core of personal and business leadership. Let’s break it down to make it easier, because even though it’s a small question, it has huge consequences.
1. What do you see as a/the problem that YOU are willing to solve?
I’ll give you a couple of examples. A major problem I see is that people don’t feel empowered to fuel that inner, divine spark of creativity inside them. I see too many people trapped in jobs they hate because they don’t trust their own creative spirit. Seeing that untapped creativity brings me to tears. I ACCEPT the personal responsibility to change that for as many people as I can.
Maybe you see a technology-based issue as a problem you are willing to solve.
Maybe you see a lifestyle issue as a problem you’re willing to solve.
Maybe you see a financial situation as a problem you’re willing to solve.
I’m not judging the problem you choose to solve. Power comes from being on a crusade to make something better. How you define that something is what will get you out of bed in the morning. Here’s the real kicker – it’s not just about you. How you define the problem will be the foundation of your branding and marketing strategy, lending a valuable conceptual theme to your communications. It will attract and screen the right team of employees and partners. Finally, it will draw the right clients.
2. What do you see as the solution?
Problems and solutions are the yin and yang of existence. Fretting about the problem doesn’t do any good. Solutions to non-existent problems aren’t much good either. Whatever your solution, it must be easy to understand. Your solution statement becomes the opposite pole of the problem. Now comes the “business” of life and commerce – connecting those poles.
3. How can you best communicate the problem and implement your solution?
The “how” is what we pay for when we purchase services, and it’s the value we provide in business and as respected people in our “outside” lives. “How” equals value. Communicating your “value proposition” or “unique selling point” is just telling people how you connect the problem with the solution in your own way. InfoMedia’s My Internet Payday program is a perfect example of the “how” providing value. One of the problems Joel’s team accepted in that case was that people were not figuring out how to monetize their Web content. The solution is a specific approach that is clearly defined, and the value comes from all the materials that show entrepreneurs HOW to get from the problem to the solution.
An easy way to communicate this value is simply to tell the story of what you found to be the problem, share a turning point, and then share the key points of HOW to get to YOUR unique solution.
Start giving some thought to what you accept as it exists. Because none of us can solve all the world’s problems, the number of things we simply must accept as they exist will be far greater than what we can accept personal responsibility to change. If you can accurately define even ONE thing that you simply can’t accept as it exists today, you will be closing in on your life’s purpose and that will guide everything you do from now on – in business and in life – and there won’t have to be a separation between business and life.
In Part 2, I’ll discuss some tools and techniques to help refine your thoughts on this and move to the next level of The Power of Acceptance, which is the ability to receive and surrender.
Action Steps:
– Determine what problem(s) you accept responsibility for.
– Come up with a solution or solutions.
– Market your solutions to others.
– Empower yourself to accept things you cannot change.
