Most people know the Serenity Prayer. It shows up in AA meetings, on coffee mugs, in treatment centers, and taped to refrigerators.
For those of you who don’t know it, here is a refresher:
God, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
It’s a genius prayer because of its simplicity. It doesn’t ask for wealth, success, influence, or even happiness. Just three traits: serenity, courage, wisdom.
Suppose you deconstruct it even further. If you did nothing else in your life but master those three traits, where would you be? Or better yet, what challenge would you be unable to solve?
Serenity lets you stop wasting energy on what is outside your control. Courage pushes you to act on what is inside your control. Wisdom keeps you from confusing the two.
Almost every trait we admire is some combination of those three. Being good with people requires courage to engage and serenity not to overreact. Being a hard worker requires courage to take on difficulty and wisdom to focus on the right work. Being kind requires wisdom to understand others and serenity not to let your ego flare up.
I’m going to take a look at my own attributes and see how they would improve by default if I optimized myself for just those three. If the foundation is solid, the rest might take care of itself.