I am the author of the best-selling, award winning books, Losing Control, Finding Serenity and The Gifts of Acceptance. Like most compulsive controllers, I was always driven to succeed. I graduated from UCLA with honors in business administration and finished in the top 5 percent of my class at the UCLA School of Law.
While still in my twenties, I became a real estate instructor in the UCLA Extension Program and in my thirties I published a critically acclaimed, best-selling professional book, How to Invest in Real Estate Syndicates.
Financial success came early as well. Celebrities and other wealthy people entrusted me with large sums to invest on their behalf. By my mid-thirties I could afford to live in the exclusive Old Bel Air section of Los Angeles.
But for all my achievements and success, I had no sense of inner peace and serenity. How could I? I was imprisoned by my fears, anger and anxieties—all bedfellows of controllers–and thus not open to the wonders all around me.
After suffering a series of traumatic events and financial setbacks that I could not control—no matter how hard I tried—I finally began a new life journey based on letting go of control and accepting people and things as they are. I learned to surrender to the ups and downs and twists and turns of life, instead of resisting them and trying to control people and events.
Over many years, I learned effective tools and strategies for letting go of control and accepting “what is” with my family and friends, as well as in sports, creative endeavors, and the workplace. In the process, I became an artist, a published poet, a successful businessman, a champion senior tennis player, a happily married man, and a much wiser parent—all while cutting my work time by more than half.
I learned that acceptance is the best antidote for excessive control. But the benefits of acceptance go well beyond just removing the need to control. Acceptance is also instrumental in reducing stress and anxiety (and associated burdens), revealing meaningful life choices, bringing us greater freedom, forging stronger bonds in our close relationships—and much more.
Simply put, accepting “what is” lets you discover “what might be.”
Thus, through letting go of control and accepting “what is,” I have found a different and more profound success—an internal, core sense of well-being. It is my hope and wish that you, too, can experience these blessings and it is my desire to be of assistance in that journey.
Please join with me in “Helping Make Acceptance Go Viral!”
Sincerely,
Danny
