May 2024 Newsletter: God Grant me the Serenity
Supporting you to free your mind so you can live from your heart!
"God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
-The Serenity Prayer
To me this beautiful and powerful prayer describes what happens in a coaching partnership.
You can begin to gently look at, where am I using my energy for naught and trying to control the impossible?
What can I love, accept, and change within myself? What choices can I make to create an intended outcome? What do I intend and have the power to create when I stop trying to fix, change, and control others or the world in a misguided attempt to feel safe?
What promises can I make and keep to myself to build that internal safety and confidence that doesn't waver because I am doing what I said I would and being an active participant in my life? I take myself seriously and joyously!
Another way to think about it might be creating an
internal locus of control.
Locus of control is a psychological concept developed in the 1950's that refers to how strongly people believe that they have control over the situations and experiences that affect their lives.
Someone who has developed an internal locus of control believes they can influence events and their outcomes through their own efforts, decisions, and actions. They take responsibility for the success and failure
(learning opportunities)of their endeavors.
The serenity prayer above points to this orientation towards life as well. “The courage to (identify and) change the things we can.”
As we know there are many many things that happen over the course of our lifetimes that we can't control, but, we are powerful enough to control how we think about what we can't control and the choices we make in any given moment. We can choose what to think. This is a skill that can be developed.
We can evaluate our thoughts and decide if it's useful to keep believing them. As we shift the thoughts we believe to more useful and effective thought patterns our behavior follows suit and we notice we feel better.
We pick up beliefs subconsciously and we dismantle them consciously.
This is thought work and it's powerful in creating different results in our lives. It takes effort and the effort is worth it!
I AFFIRM: Today I will notice one thought and evaluate if I want to keep thinking it. I will ask myself if there is another thought I would rather believe?
Step by Step, Jessie
