Rules of Life, The, 4th Edition

RULE 4

Accept yourself

If you accept that what’s done is done, you are left with yourself exactly as you are. You can’t go back and change anything, so you’ve got to work with what you’ve got. I’m not suggesting anything New Age here such as love yourself – that’s far too ambitious. No, let’s begin with simple accepting. Accepting is easy because it is exactly what it says – accepting. You don’t have to improve or change or strive for perfection. Quite the opposite. Just accept.

That means accepting all the warts and emotional lumps and bumps, the bad bits, the weaknesses and the rest of it. This doesn’t mean we are happy with everything about ourselves, or that we are going to be lazy and lead a bad life. We are going to accept the way we ...