Letting Go

I cannot believe we have six weeks and six days left in 2024! Where has the time gone?!

As this year draws to a close, it is time to take stock and reflect on the goals we set for ourselves when the year began. How many of those have been achieved and how many are still outstanding?

This is also a good time to review what we can still close out to finish the year strong as we think about what we want to achieve in the New Year! It is about looking at what we can carry over to the New Year and continue to build on while taking on new challenges and adventures.

To achieve the desired growth and development personally or professionally, we must first be clear about what we want and then be intentional about achieving it. This includes having a specific plan with steps towards the goal. We must take small incremental steps that get us closer each day, each week, each month, and ultimately the year towards our plan. Now and again, we may fall off the wagon however, when you have a plan, it is easy to get back on track because all you have to do is look back at what you have already achieved, no matter how small to spur you on.

One of the things that can hold us back from achieving our goals is holding on to things and/or people that we should have let go a long time ago.  This includes jobs that no longer challenge us and relationships that drain us and are no longer mutually beneficial. Letting go is hard because it may make us feel like we have failed, it is uncomfortable and may push us outside of our comfort zone. It is also scary because we start thinking about all the things that can go wrong if we let go instead of focusing on what can go right and the positive change that can come into our lives. Letting go can lead us to new beginnings and opportunities we would not have considered. It can enable us to achieve what we would not have thought possible.

Everything in nature has a season. Our lives also have seasons, which we must pay close attention to and work in harmony with them. There are times when we will be in the summer of our lives when everything is going well. There will be times when we are in the spring of our lives when opportunities seem endless, and we are thriving. Then there will be times when we are in the autumn when opportunities have dried up, nothing seems to be going well and things are falling apart. Then there is the winter of our lives when it is cold and the ground is hard when we cannot plant anything. When doors seem to be closing on us and nothing seems to be working out. As such, we need to stay wise by preparing for winter and autumn in the spring and summer of our lives. Most importantly, as we go through the different seasons, we also need to learn from each experience to get better and stronger with each passing season. Failure to do so will result in us repeating the same season and not moving past it.

Things and people in our lives also have seasons. As such, things and people come and go in our lives according to the seasons. We need to understand this to know when to welcome people and opportunities in our lives in the same way that we need to know when it is time to let them go. If we hold on to people and things past their season, then circumstances in our lives will take place that force us to let go. It is usually under unpleasant and painful circumstances. When you let go on your terms because you know that the time has come to let go, you have more control of what comes thereafter and how to deal with what follows. You can also plan better to deal with the aftermath. However, when you are forced to let go, you find yourself on the back foot and waste a lot of time trying to figure out what happened and making sense of it all before reconciling with the events and then moving on.

I have the following questions for you:

1.       What are you holding on to that you should have let go of a long time ago, which could be holding you back from achieving your goals?

2.       What are you going to do about it?