Change

accept what you can't change, change what you can't accept

The saying above was on a friend's Facebook page and it really got me thinking.  How much time do we spend worrying about things which we have no change of affecting?  A friend who was moving house was fretting about whether or not their old property would ever sell, particularly as they'd committed to buy the new one.  Her husband told her 'worrying about it isn't going to make any difference to whether or not it sells' and John was so right.  The difference it was going to make was to Helen in terms of sleepless nights and nails bitten to the quick.  The old house sold, they moved and life went on.

So from time to time it's worth taking stock about the issues which are perplexing us and asking ourselves whether or not we can actually make any changes.  If not then an acceptance of the reality might reduce the worry factor.

In audit terms it is important to look at the issues which you can influence and those which you cannot.  I always stress the importance of using 'lack of management commitment' as a last resort when raising NCR's - if there truly is a lack of commitment it's a hard one to change.  There are likely, however, to be a myriad of other issues which can be changed - things which are unacceptable but which can be brought to acceptability or compliance through attention.

The words which started this blo