Releasing Your Stranglehold On Life - Daily Meditation #29
You will strangle all the joy out of life when you hang onto everything too tight. The process becomes the grind. Milestones become way stations in the desert. You can drive yourself so crazy chasing opportunity and success that you forgot why you even wanted these things in the first place.
Most consummate overachievers could release their stranglehold on the opportunities in their life and still have amazing results. Perhaps, even better results. After all, nobody likes a try-hard.
The first time I experienced the benefits of letting go was when I released my stranglehold on university. I was so fatigued from overworking myself, that I didn't care about my grades, nor what my professors thought of me. I vowed to still show up and do my assignments, but I was going to put my well-being first. You know what happened?
Not a damn thing changed.
My grades were still just as good. My relationships with professors improved. I was enjoying school again. I released my stranglehold on opportunity and success, and it actually helped my situation.
I watched as my classmates continued to work themselves stupid. They were putting in that all nighter to maybe get 2% more than me on a grade that would never matter after graduation. In reality, getting a good night's sleep probably would have earned them an extra 2% from avoiding silly mistakes on the exam.
It's counterintuitive, but sometimes we can try too hard. The stranglehold we have on an opportunity makes us desperate to succeed. Our perspective becomes myopic, and our disposition ornery, rather than affable and playful.
People want to see someone enjoy their efforts, their craft, and their life. We are attracted to those that not only do something well, but those that do it with grace. You can succeed and take advantage of opportunities, without choking the fun out of something you once enjoyed.
Love the process. Celebrate the little achievements. Have a sense of humour when it doesn't go your way. Release your stranglehold on life, and see if anything changes.
I bet you everything will be just fine.
Like this post? Please feel free to follow me!
Or read more daily meditations:
Do You Deserve It?
The Human Predicament, Explained In Under 5 Minutes
Feelings Don't Come With Instructions
Why We Should Stop Saying "Pressure Creates Diamonds"
Practicing Gratefulness Isn't Just A Cliche
How To Handle Adversity? Expect It.
Main image created in Canva; underline credit
Hi Chris
This is really relatable. I had a similar situation with balancing family, career and an illness. It was so difficult maintaining that rear-naked choke on all aspects of life. I retired and found that immediate release of pressure so freeing.
Your post reminds me of how happy I am to have let go of things that are unnecessary, giving me more energy to enjoy the important stuff. So, thanks for that.
Cheers
Anj :D
First off, kudos for knowing what a rear-naked choke is. Hahaha
Yes, we need to only focus on what matters. No more, no less. I am continually trying to wittle away at what doesn't matter, and double-down on what really does.
I am glad you enjoyed the piece! Thank you for your support!
"Release your stranglehold on life" should probably be one of my mantras! We can't control everything, or even very many things. I've made a little progress in this area, but there's still a long way to go. Your photo is a pretty good illustration of the concept - poor guy! let him breath! Cheers!
Hahaha well... Some of us need the reminder more than others! But I am right there with you ;)
I think that we are trained to worry about everything and do everything in our power to succeed or avoid failure. It makes it difficult to enjoy much when we have to hold onto everything so tightly.
I hope you have a wonderful day!
You have a point there. I wish I had read this post before. I recently appeared for an exam. For it, I had cut every source of social life and started studying for the time. Because of nervousness, I had an anxiety attacked and ended up disappointed. Anyway, brilliant post. Really motivating.
Exam anxiety is the worst. I feel for you.
Sometimes we end up letting go from fatigue, like I described above. It's so hard to know when we are holding on too tight.
I hope that you're in a good spot now and things are going better!
Thank you again for your comment and support today. It's good to see new faces returning :)
I am in a good spot now. Thank you for hoping my betterment. I will be visiting a lot now. :)
That's a great lesson to learn. It's crazy how powerful our perception of circumstances can be.
Thank you, Chris! I appreciate you saying that.
@chrismccron You're absolutely right, we just need to stay positive as much as we can. Everything is going to be fined in the end~
And if it's not, we'll deal with it when we get there ;)
Life has it's own way of impacting knowledge to us but most atimes, we have to let go of somethings in order to behold others.
Thank you for sharing.
Letting go is very tricky. We're worried about what will ultimately happen. I have to continually remind myself of this lesson.
thanks for your information.. thank you so much sir for your post sharing.
Thank you.