Acceptance and compliance: What is the difference?

Acceptance and compliance: What is the difference? Certain negative attitudes can impair our progress throughout life, and among these attitudes is compliance. But isn’t this the same as acceptance?

It turns out that these concepts are very distant from each other, but most people have a habit of confusing them. The fact that you accept something does not mean that you feel satisfied with it.

In this article, you will learn the difference between acceptance and compliance so that you can identify them as soon as possible and prevent your progress from being impaired.

First of all, what is acceptance?

For psychology, acceptance means recognizing the unwanted situations of our reality about which we can do nothing to change them; learning to assume them (without complaints or excuses); and thus strengthen our tolerance for failures, losses, or vital disappointments.

In the face of the death of a relative, the abandonment of the spouse, or a natural catastrophe, the acceptance of this situation is the beginning to initiate a reparative action that maintains our emotional stability. It helps us sense our limits on what we can or cannot change in our existential environment.

Acceptance is not resignation because it leads to inaction, feeling that we can do nothing to resolve a situation. Nor is it compliance or approval. It is the decision to admit and face all the troubles that life gives us to achieve the wisdom of recognizing the reality in the environment, leaving behind what we cannot change to focus on what we can control and correct.

The moment we accept something, we open ourselves to consider other possibilities that can improve our situation. We train our psychological flexibility to choose between resigning or persevering in action at the service of our values.

It is also the determination to accept ourselves, allowing us to be what we want to be regardless of our family or social environment.

Now, what is conformity? Acceptance and compliance

The term conformism is an abstract term used to refer to the attitude that a human being can have towards life and the different situations that they have to live in from day to day. The idea of conformity comes from the adjective “conform.”

Being satisfied with something means accepting it, and although when we use this adjective, we usually give a positive meaning to the person. With conformity that acceptance becomes negative as long as the person is characterized by accepting everything that happens to them regardless of whether that is negative or positive, and doing nothing to fight against what you dislike or satisfy.

Conformity is one of the most common attitudes of our time, and this has to do with the type of society we live in. Today’s society causes its members to be immersed in a complex system of routines, demands, duties, and occupations from which it is very difficult to get rid of if one wants to survive in the best possible way.

So what is the difference between acceptance and conformity?

Acceptance neither approves or disapproves. It does not give any consent, nor does it imply conformity. Acceptance is facing things as they are, adopting the best attitude to receive them.

Conformity, on the contrary, approves the event, expresses its agreement with the proposal, shares the budgets, and gives its consent for it to be carried out and, therefore, to participate in what happens; getting involved in the action and responsibility for what happened, whatever the measure of involvement and activity.

Conformity involves us as architects, creators, mediators, intermediaries, followers, patrons, developers… Acceptance can affect us as victims.

How to get rid of conformist attitudes?

Conformity is one of the greatest barriers to self-improvement. Sometimes you can fall into a conformist attitude without noticing it because adherence to a routine may not be leaving time to enter a process of introspection.

Conformity is one of the main causes that people are living lives they don’t want to live.

Conformity is a state of mind in which people accept the situations, people, and conditions in their lives because they believe it is impossible to make a change, an improvement, or progress.

Repetition can create constructive and destructive habits in us. And no matter how long we’ve been with a certain routine, we can always decide to change it and start with repetition.

A good first step to stop being conformists is to detect the situation in which we conform to what we have without aspiring to something better. Later, identify the limiting beliefs associated with the said situation and then act in favor of their elimination.

Now here are some tips to stop being conformist:

• Define an ambitious personal growth project

Think about your ideal lifestyle, where you feel self-fulfilled. To achieve such results, you need an ambitious personal growth plan.

• Think big at all times, acceptance and compliance

If you get into the habit of thinking big at all times, you will certainly be able to abandon conformism forever because you will take positive actions every day so that you can fulfill your high expectations.

• Exercising your right to a great lifestyle, acceptance and compliance

People fall into conformism because they believe they are destined to live with few personal achievements. This is not the case. Every human being has the potential to achieve incredible goals. If you understand your eternal spiritual nature, you will surely leave conformity forever.

• Struggling to overcome the inertia of returning to the comfort zone

How many people enthusiastically start certain goals and then drop out? There are many because they allow the inertia of returning to the comfort zone to dominate them. To achieve a definitive change in lifestyle, you need to fight daily until you break the traditional internal inertia. Use all your will to advance where you want, and you will achieve success in life.

Conclusions

Now that you know the difference between acceptance and conformity, you have the opportunity to create an attitude that allows you to eradicate that negative behavior that does not allow you to move forward.