By Brian Nadon

Acceptance? Resignation? That’s not me, we say, I never give up. I’m a fighter.

Ok. If you say so, Brian.

But there’s a difference between being a fighter and a doer. Remember, one of the outcomes of “fighting” is losing. And that’s what happens most of the time; indeed, every time when you fight something that is outside your control.

This is why we should instead practice the “art of acquiesce.” A desire for things to be exactly as they are – so they can use them.

Marcus Aurelius wrote,

“Our inward power, when it obeys nature, reacts to events by accommodating itself to what it faces – to what is possible. It needs no specific material. It pursues its own aims as circumstances allow; it turns obstacles into fuel. As a fire overwhelms what would have quenched a lamp. What’s thrown on top of the conflagration is absorbed, consumed by it – and makes it burn still higher.”

Today, ask yourself which type you’re going to be. Are you going to be a fighter or a doer? Are you going to “resist” or are you going to accept obstacles and turn them into fuel for action?