Surrender. What a magical world.
To most people, surrender means giving up, so it's no wonder that we have always been massively resistant to the idea of surrendering.
People ask me all the time: how come we struggle so much when it comes to surrender? I simply point out that objectively, surrender means letting go of control and trusting the universe, God, higher self, or whatever you choose to call it.
Surrender as Trust and Exploration
Not being attached to a given outcome can be extremely hard, and I know this lesson very well. It’s a constant handing-over of that which we cannot control, knowing that in one way or another, we’ll get exactly where we are meant to be. In trusting our path to take us there, we must also find peace with a timeline that often does not match our own.
If reading this makes you extremely frustrated, welcome to the club.
One of the reasons why it’s so hard to surrender is that we have been taught that in order to succeed, we need to have a specific plan and achieve every step of the way. We get this kind of lesson from a conservative business model. However, I feel that now more than ever, forward-thinking entrepreneurs are rewriting the rules of success.
Success is knowing where you're going, being ready to redirect, and re-shifting gears when things don’t work out. ~Fab Giovanetti
It’s about being open, flexible, and not too attached to the outcome. In other words, it's about surrender.
What I tell my clients all the time is to think about their goals as a big, bright dream that they are handing to somebody else to take care of and feed. In order to achieve this big, bold goal, all we need to know is the current step in the present moment; not that of tomorrow or next month, but our very next step in order to achieve the goal.
Embrace Failure, Get Experience
If you're an advocate for mindfulness but don’t set mindful goals like this, then you are missing the whole point. We need to set ourselves up to have a fair share of failure in the process, because that is when we grow. Things may take unexpected turns while we experience our own unique blends of failure, but the lessons that come provide confidence. This approach allows for much more growth than an old, dusty outline you carved up six months ago.
Surrender is not for the weak. Surrender is acceptance of our own path as one of growth and fun. We should enjoy the journey rather than going on our own Wikipedia entry and skipping to the end.
Once a friend told me that the first thing she would do every morning was scream, "I surrender!" Although this specific method may be less than ideal for your partner, starting your day with mindfulness and committing to surrender is what makes our life a little bit easier and ultimately, much more fun.