Appreciation is seeing the potential or usefulness of something in a way that you can value what it has to offer. It’s not about liking something, but rather finding value in it. What’s great about appreciation is that once you’ve open the door to yourself through tolerance, you don’t have to change what you see, only how you see it. I give you examples of how to do this in the book, but the main way you do it is by becoming more curious.
When you aren’t curious about something, you are stuck with how you see it at the moment. You have a restricted range of what something can mean, and then are subject to responding out of that meaning. For instance, when you make a mistake and the only meaning you take from it is you are stupid or inadequate, you will most likely respond negatively toward yourself.
On the other hand, if you make a mistake and can get curious about it, you open it up to other possibilities. For instance, maybe you were in a hurry, forgot to double-check something, you were tired, or you are simply a human who makes mistakes. With these meanings, you can now find value in the mistake and use it to make changes, such as take a few more seconds to double-check something, find a way to get more rest, or even laugh at your blunder and practice giving yourself grace.
Appreciation can be the difference between the rejection or acceptance of something or someone (including you). As long as you can’t find value or utility in something, you will treat it as useless or unimportant. When you can find the value and utility of something, you get to learn from it and use it for your growth.
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