Every battle that takes place in my mind always concludes with the same ceasefire: Balance. Balance solves every conundrum, it is the remedy for all uneasiness and is the goal for anyone on a mission toward holistic self-improvement. My most recent quandary deals with the fact that peace is attained through a genuine acceptance of one's place in life. One's situation must fully be embraced and accepted for the purest calm to reign in the mind. However, having goals, in my opinion, is the only real thing that makes life meaningful; having an objective to strive for inherently means that you cannot simply accept the way things are - instead, you must have some inner drive not to settle for the way things are but to keep pacing towards progress. Both are necessary, hence the contradiction I'm struggling with which inevitably should result in balance.
Maybe part of the problem is that I'm using dissatisfaction with certain aspects of my life as the driving force behind wanting to make improvements, and instead, I should sublimate that dissatisfaction into a sense of gratitude that I'm alive and healthy and very much in a position to make necessary changes and improvements. This is tough for me though. Perhaps the single quote that's made the biggest impact on me in recent years has been the following: "Suffering arises when our view of the way things ought to be doesn't match the way things are." (This is from a phenomenal book called Dharma Punx.) This quote made such an impact on me because it helped me tremendously with working on my state of mind. One time I remember walking in Manhattan and it started to rain, ruining my hair. Before I was able to get flustered, I quietly muttered to myself "It's okay that it's raining. Even though my evening won't go completely as planned, rain is a part of nature and nature is perfect." This mental exercise, inspired by that one quote, allowed me to not for a second get distraught over the triviality which I would have otherwise fixated on. This sentiment has helped me with other, more important things as well, such as dealing with pain (physical and emotional). For the first time though I find myself unsatisfied with my ability to apply the core of that quote to certain parts of my life - and I actually take some pride in that. This is because there are certain things, like one's most meaningful relationships, in which it would be utterly insulting to apply a mere acceptance of the status quo without working to improve every aspect of your dynamic with the people you care about.
So now I'm starting to realize that the quote, "Suffering arises when your view of the way things ought to be doesn't match the way things are," remains relevant to things solely beyond your control. For the parts of your life you can influence, however, improvement is always possible and is in fact a necessity which warrants the opposite of placid acceptance.
