The Business And Personal Use Of The Serenity Prayer

It’s not just for AA attendees any longer

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Alcoholics Anonymous offers up the Serenity Prayer as one of their cornerstones to achieving sobriety, but it also can be applied to many other challenges in life.

Serenity Prayer:

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.

I have personally been applying this to my current situation at my place of employment.

So what’s going on?

As mentioned in a previous article, the company I work for had been purchased by a much larger Canadian company. We are their first U.S. purchase and as such, they have a great deal to learn about the U.S. business market.

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On the other hand, we were a company of approximately 25 employees and now are part of a company with many hundreds of employees. We all have new bosses, new processes to adopt, and new ways of thinking to contend with. We too have much to learn.

This is a big change for all of us, but how it affects a person is in how they choose to view things. This is where the words of the Serenity Prayer come into play.

So how can it be applied?

First of all, let me say that keeping the prayer front of mind is oftentimes difficult. We are human and as such we can react emotionally to difficult situations.

With this out of the way, when emotion is taken out of the equation, you can look at any situation, and weigh it against the two options offered in the prayer.

1. Identify whether the situation is something that is within my control? If not, then “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.”

2. If the situation is within your sphere of control or influence then you need: “The courage to change the things I can.”