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I’ve accepted the workplace bullshit and it’s actually made things worse
People talk about acceptance a lot in personal development and whilst it does have its benefits in many ways, it’s always been a flawed concept. Yes, accept where you’re at when you can’t change it right now. Accept people for who they are and accept what they do when you can’t control it.
But the key is that you can’t control it. I can accept all I want but if someone wants to torture me they’re going to torture me. If someone wants to lie to get me fired they’re going to lie to get me fired. Both of these things happened to me last year and now I’m poorer than ever.
This has made me think more deeply about acceptance and what it actually gets you in life. It’s also made me think about the workplace and the best way to approach it. Maybe sometimes I do need to go on the attack before they attack me.
Acceptance is a coping mechanism
Acceptance is low key only a way to cope with what’s happening to you right now. You can’t change anything and you may not be able to do anything to save yourself, so you have to find a way to cope and the only way is by accepting what’s happening to you.
What acceptance does not do is end the problem. Just because you’ve accepted what’s happening to you doesn’t mean it’s going to solve the problem. All you’ve done is found a way to cope and not be the victim, now you need to do something.
People don’t like acceptance
When you show strength and resistance to a bully or a oppressive regime it’s safe to say it pisses them off more, and their actions become more extreme. It’s not often they’ll back down, now you’re challenging their ego.
This is why so many strong people who stood up to bullies ended up dying or having something bad happen to them. All they did was stand their ground and accept the consequences for it. This is one of the reasons people admire them so much.
