Mick Jagger was right.

You can’t always get what you want.

The world isn’t fair, predictable or consistent. Other people are flawed, often self-absorbed and frequently annoying. Life is full of poor sleep, too much to do and not enough pleasure.

If you had to estimate what percentage of the time you would describe your mood as happy, what would you come up with? Most people, most honest people anyway, come up with about 10% or less.

In many ways, life sucks then you die.

The answer is simple: acceptance.

Instead of demanding in your nutty head that the world and the people in it be anything other than the way they are, accept things as they are.

Accept that life is often annoying and unfair.

Accept that people are often a pain in the ass.

Accept that most of the time you’ll not be thrilled at circumstances.

This doesn’t mean not to try to make yourself happy, it doesn’t mean to be a negatron and it doesn’t mean you have an excuse to hate everyone.

But being realistic gives you the freedom to choose your state. Figure out what gives you the most fulfillment and go after it. Along the way accept life’s imperfections and deal with them. This means accepting your own crummy traits.

Sure you procrastinate, sure you’re a blamer and sure you have bouts of laziness. Accept them, try to change them but don’t demand that you be anything other than what you are.

This life is what it is. Stop pretending and demanding that it’s going to be something else and go after what thrills you.

Acceptance probably won’t lead to a state of bliss. But it will reduce miserableness.

It will also give you the vision to go after what you really want to do with a realistic perspective.