I like to keep things simple. It makes it easier to navigate day to day life as well as those times when life gives me unexpected bumps, twists, turns, and dips.

When I hit a bump in the road of life, such as receiving a cancer diagnosis, I rely on my experience of doing what I do best to keep my head on straight and not lose my cool. . ..at least not all of my COOL.

My success formula for peaceful/joyful navigation through life consists of my 3 A’s. They are simple to remember and are pretty basic concepts, not requiring a lot of memorization or study. I will say, however, that my 3 A’s need to be practiced regularly (even with the little things) so when you get hit by the unexpected, you can naturally revert to the safety net of The 3 A’s, without a lot of work to remember what comes next.

The first of my A’s is ACCEPTANCE. What I mean by acceptance is not to just give up and accept that whatever hardship has befallen you will leave you doomed forever. On the contrary, I mean accepting what you cannot change. Resisting and fighting against what you don’t want will not only exhaust you and make you miserable, it disempowers you. When any of us are complaining, lamenting and refusing to accept that which is an undeniable fact, we lose our power to not only get aligned with peace, but we also forfeit our power to make choices that come from love rather than from fear.

The second of my A’s is ADJUST. Adjusting requires a conscious effort to put your mind in a gear that automatically shows you what new opportunities are possible, rather than wasting your time feeling bad about what is lost. When we allow ourselves to reset via adjusting, we are putting ourselves in a position to think in a way that perhaps we haven’t before or to learn something new and to consider going down a path that was not part of our original plan. Just like Siri announces she is recalculating, we can do the same thing in life. We simply need to make the adjustments needed to get unstuck and move forward.

My 3rd A stands for Allowing. What allowing means to me is to not be insistent on things going a certain way but to allow circumstances to unfold in a manner that may turn out to be delightfully surprising and ultimately for my highest good. Allowing does not mean I give up all control and simply sit and wait for things to happen to me. Allowing is more about setting intentions for what I would like to see happen and then allowing the circumstances to fall into place, without a need to manipulate and micromanage every detail. Note: You can be in action and allow at the same time. Allowing is also the optimal response to our prayers. Many of us pray, asking for assistance or guidance from God and then continue to fret and worry even though we proclaim that we have given our problems over to the Lord. When we let go of total control, we can allow ourselves to be blessed. It is also an integral part of accepting help from others when we allow ourselves to ask for help.

If you are still reading this post and are noticing you are even mildly intrigued or perhaps actually allowing the concepts to play in your mind, that is a great indication that you may also benefit from a simple no-fail formula that will not only keep you in peace, it will teach you how powerful you are.