Moving forward

A major contributing factor to moving forward in life is being able to let things go.

It could be physical possessions, people or memories and experiences.

An easy example is if you tried something and it didn’t work out. If you can’t let go of the thing that didn’t work you may find that it underlies future situations when you try something new.

Suddenly you’ve become someone that believes that nothing will work out for you, you become closed off to new things and remain stagnant.

That may seem extreme but that’s the reality of life. You won’t realise how much that one situation affected you until you’re randomly pondering life one Sunday afternoon.

I don’t think there’s one specific way to let go, what works for one may not work for another so it’s important to figure it out for yourself.

Life changing habits: Let go of expectations

This used to be one of my worst habits.

I’d do this thing where I’d place a lot of expectations on people that left no room for humanness and left me feeling disappointed.

Once I realised that I did this I started making a conscious effort to stop. I’ve learnt how to catch myself in the act and it is such a blessing. It means I’m much less bothered by what people do.

Letting go of expectation has made some relationships a lot easier. It has also helped me clarify that in some cases I’m more invested than the other person and that we should probably just part ways.

It’s also about balance. For example, expecting a friend to make time to see you is realistic but if you’re always expecting your friend to be free and getting upset or annoyed when they’re busy, you might want to reassess your expectations.

Letting go of an old dream

What do you do when you wake up one morning and realise that the life you wanted is no longer something you want to pursue?

How do you let go of an old dream?

I’m still figuring out the answers to these questions so let me know if you have any insight. What I’ve discovered so far though is that it’s okay to change your mind and ten years spent on a path you no longer what to pursue isn’t wasted time. Especially if it gave you the chance to learn, develop and realise that you want something else.

Life is all about contrast and sometimes we have to experience something that we don’t want to figure out what we do want.

Too often we think that changing our minds about what we want means starting over when in reality you never go back to the start line you just continue to develop.

Perhaps, the challenge in letting go of the old is in knowing that you’ll have to re-envision your life plans and commit to something new which is both scary and exciting but more often than not worth it.