“I made the booking and didn’t know what was going to happen” a Friend told me, when describing a trip she had organised to swim with sea lions in the ocean.

It turned out to be a wonderful day at a beautiful spot, but no sea lions turned up. Undeterred, she said “sometimes the sea lions don’t swim with you.”

The truth of that became embedded in my mind and is something that I come back to regularly. It captures our world perfectly and flies in the face of what we think we can control.

You can do everything within your power; make the booking, turn up at the right time, wear the right gear, have the right mindset, but in the end there are things that are outside of your control that can get in the way. Sometimes sea lions don’t operate on our schedule or according to our wishes.

In response to that we could waste time and energy cursing the sea lions, or our bad luck because we missed out, but generally the only thing that we can do is to accept that sometimes sea lions don’t swim with us.

It is highly likely that in any one area of your life right now, something outside of your control is stopping you from doing something that you want to do, perhaps they are sea lions, perhaps something else – are your cursing or accepting?

Remember, sea lions run on their own schedule.