The Hardest Lesson of All - Letting Go

Are you the type of person that procrastinates, resents things, and holds onto the past? Do you dwell on things, and is your voice a constant recorder playing the same old negativity over and over every day?

Do you constantly beat yourself up about all of the things that you should have done or said? Are you grieving about things that you lost, stuck in a rut, and unable to move forward with your life?

Many of us focus on the bad things in our lives. We like to focus and dwell on the things that we cannot control. We mull them over in our mind and try to create new scenarios, even though we can’t take back the scenario that had already happened.

We waste our precious energy on what might have been, instead of putting energy into what already is. We take on other people’s feelings and internalize them, causing ourselves to feel bad because someone else around us feels bad or is negative.

One of the best things that you can do to promote a healthy life is to let go of the past. The past is full of things that cannot be changed. Dwelling on things that you did or didn’t do will only fill your head with chatter that isn’t necessary for the future. If you needed to learn a lesson, learn it and move on.

Only use your past to learn not to make the same mistakes in the future. But don’t let your past stop you from making any decisions. Don’t let your past traumatize you into inactivity. Embrace each day as a new day.

Don’t force other people to relive your past either. And don’t use your past to punish yourself or others. There is no purpose in it, and it will only leave you bitter and resentful.

Another great practice is letting go of your old hurts. Has someone done you wrong in the past? Let it go.

Have you stopped visiting your family members or burned a few bridges to relationships that are healthy and fruitful for you? Let go of whatever is causing grief between you and the other person.

Odds are that other person can provide some positive value to your life. If you learn to accept other people for who they are and let go of things that you don’t like about the other person, you will finally be able to see them for their good qualities and be able to have a beneficial relationship with them.

Do you have people in your life who are negative, who continuously bring you down, or who are a drain on your time or your resources. Cut ties with relationships which are unhealthy for you overall and are causing stress for you. Let go of your strained relationships until the other person puts effort into themselves to change for the positive.

Sometimes we surround ourselves with toxic people who bring us down. In order to make your own life more full and productive, you may need to cut down the amount of toxic people you have around you, or limit your time with them. Learn to say no to them if they are asking for resources that you can’t part with.

Also, try to let go of those bad habits that are bringing you down. Let go of any hate or anger that you are harboring. Let go of any guilt and hopelessness that is in your heart. Stop dwelling. Instead, step back and see the big picture. See yourself in your whole life and all of the positive things that you have done and how you have contributed to other people.

If you have guilt over something that has happened, and you feel ill toward someone because of something bad you did or said, maybe you need to find a way to make amends. If it is eating you up inside for years, wouldn’t it be better to face it head on and fix the problem?

Sometimes writing a nice letter of apology makes all the difference in fixing mistakes that we made in the past. You will be surprised that the other person probably forgot about something you have been holding onto for years. Putting yourself through such turmoil is both unhealthy and unproductive.

Let go of your old bad habits. Start giving them up for new positive habits. It takes just as much effort and time to do an old habit as it does to do a new habit. You can start making positive changes today by starting a new positive habit today. Instead of taking 10 minutes to go through the McDonald’s drive through, take 10 minutes to fry yourself an egg for breakfast or eat a yogurt.

Instead of working through lunch, take a walk outside and soak up the fresh air, breathe and meditate for a few minutes to refresh yourself. You will be surprisingly more efficient once you go back to work after a short lunch break than if you had wasted your entire lunch on work duties.

Do you avoid doing things that would be fun and healthy for you because you fear that you might fail or not be good at something?

Most people, if given the choice, will remain stagnant rather than fail at something. But truly living is getting out there and trying new things and learning new things. You can’t discover what you are good at if you never try anything.

Can you imagine if Tiger Woods never tried to pick up a golf club?
What if Barak Obama was terrified to run his campaign for presidency?

What if Taylor Swift froze the first time she went on stage, and then gave up and threw in the towel?

Their first steps were difficult. Your first steps toward finding out about yourself and learning new things will also likely be a little harder than you are used to. But to do something and succeed is one of the most rewarding things you will ever experience in your life!

Imagine how proud you will be once you successfully do what you set out to do! And if you don’t succeed, you can chalk it up to a learning experience. You can use that set of skills you gained toward succeeding in a different area of your life. Even if you can’t find a use for what you tried, it probably makes a darn funny story sometime when you are sitting around a table with a bunch of people, right?

They will find you interesting when you share a funny personable story with others and show that you were embarrassed at some point in your life, much like everyone else was at one point.
Another way to let go is to let go of things that are leaching time away from you.

Have you overpromised your time to someone? Have you ever volunteered for too many things, and dreaded doing what you had signed up for? Get rid of these time leaches from your schedule.

Learn to say no and let go of tasks or delegate tasks to other people who might have more time to do them or enjoy doing them. Doing tasks that you find as grudge work are both unrewarding and suck the inspiration out of you. Put your efforts into things that you enjoy doing.

Delegate tasks so that each person in your company or household or relationship are doing the parts they don’t mind doing in exchange for you doing the parts you don’t mind doing.

Are you a perfectionist who can be critical toward yourself and others, to the point where you and they don’t get anything done? Being a perfectionist is exhausting, and being nit-picked by a perfectionist will deflate a person’s inspiration very quickly.

Learn to let go of your expectations. Learn not to judge another person’s work. They are not you, and they likely will not do the same tasks in the same manner as you. That doesn’t mean their efforts are not valued. Learn to value other people’s efforts, even if they are not done to your standards. Show them that you appreciate them for what they can do, and they will reward you by trying harder next time to do a great job.

Letting go is not easy, but it is one of the biggest steps you can take to make a real difference in the quality and happinesss in your life.

Sorry, you can't have the subject of letting go, without this song, these days. This version has the words to sing along to and everything. Enjoy ;) :

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