Surrender | Believe

It’s a bit of a huge leap to go from not accepting to accepting. From accepting to believing can be an even bigger jump.

If accepting is the caterpillar thinking that it’s possible for such a beast to transform into an elegant, colorful, flying beauty, then believing is the point where that same caterpillar realizes it’s possible for her.

There’s pretty much only one thing that separates the “accepters” from the “believers” and that’s experience.

Personal, real, repeatable experience.

In other words, our friendly caterpillar can read books all day, watch videos, take courses, and even hear it direct from butterfly friends but until she experiences it herself, it’s going to be a tough sell.

Here’s the difference:

1. I think it’s possible (accept).
2. I think it’s possible for me (believe).

We’ve gone from the safe world of theory, “Well, I suppose the world could be flat…” to the side of personal experience where you’ve been in an airplane, looked out the window, and saw the curvature of the earth.

Enough with caterpillars and airplanes for a moment.

Concrete Example: Writing

Before I stared writing, I accepted that one could be a writer. I didn’t really believe it was possible for me because, well, uh, yeah, I didn’t really have any good reasoning as to why I shouldn’t believe it (but I had plenty of bad reasons: self doubt, fear, etc.) but I also didn’t have personal experience as to why I could actually become a writer myself.

Until I, duh, started writing.

I added the “duh” in there just to annoy myself and make me regret (even more) how I spent years not writing yet only dreaming of it.

I accepted that it was possible for others.

I didn’t believe it was possible for me.

The caterpillar accepts turning into a butterfly is possible but when it comes to her? Seriously, this fat, slow crawling blog of goo? How in the world?

Yet one day, it happens.

Then she goes from accepting to believing.

I only started believing I could become a writer when I started writing.

So simple.

So hard.

So potentially frustrating.

Yet so rewarding once we get past each level.

Imagine how much fun it’s going to be to get to surrender.

Bit-Harder-to-Grasp Example

You break your arm. You go to the doctor, get a cast.

All the doctor is doing is adding this bunch of hardened plaster so your arm doesn’t bend.

What’s happening behind the scenes is that your arm is healing. The broken bones, somehow, meld back together and after a certain amount of weeks, your arm is probably as good as new.

You accept his happens because you know about it, it’s just common knowledge. But now you believe it because it happened to you.

Are you ready to surrender to it?