Change, quit or accept

Are you stuck in a system you don’t like? A stressful job with a poorly run company? A hostile, negative, volatile community or network of friends? A fragmented family? Are you part of a dysfunctional political machine?

If you are stuck in such a system, you have only three options. Change, quit or accept.

1) CHANGE THE SYSTEM

Attempt to right the wrongs. Diagnose the biggest problems, the ones that, if solved, will have the most transformative effects, and devote your time and energy to conquering them.

2) QUIT THE SYSTEM

Who says you have to stay? Quitting is not a moral choice, it’s a strategic decision. It’s perfectly okay to walk away from something so harmful and toxic.

3) ACCEPT THE SYSTEM

If you can’t (read: won’t) do 1) or 2), then you have no choice but to accept the system as it is. To resign yourself to the fact that this is how it is and how it is going to remain.

If you’re somewhere you don’t want to be, part of a system you detest, a cog in a machine with severe faults, the choices are limited. You can try to bring about change. You can wash your hands of it. Or you can accept and endure.

Which will you choose?