Freedom Blog

Thursday, July 19, 2012

Letting Go


No Limits | The Freedom Blog


Letting Go

Written by Steven Griggs | stevengriggs.com

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be”
Lao Tzu

“Expose yourself to your greatest fear, after that, fear has no power and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”
Jim Morrison

“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don't.” 
Steve Maraboli

Have you ever struggled with an issue that you just can’t seem to solve? You feel you should have the answer but the answer continually eludes you? You’ve beaten your head against the wall (all four walls) looking at options and scenarios. You’ve looked at the problem twenty different ways and still there is no answer.

That’s because some situations aren’t solvable, at least by you. You have to recognize that sometimes you can’t fix it, change it or make it better.

You have to let go.

This is because sometimes we find ourselves dealing with situations that we really can’t  have an answer to. But we don’t recognize it at the time. We get caught up in the process, especially if we are creative and in the past were able to solve any problems that came up.

We are trying to control outcomes or situations that are outside of us, situations that can’t really be solved by us.

The trick is to know what you can control and what you can’t.  

We can’t really control anything outside of ourselves. Yes, you can move the pieces around the chess board, but sometimes the pieces that you can move aren’t the ones that make a difference. The pieces that matter are outside of your control.

Knowing this and when to let go and turn the corner is a crucial lesson.

You can lose yourself in the stress and frustration of trying too hard, of constantly brain storming solutions and creating new plans of attack. It can suck you into the maelstrom and keep you there.

It trashes you. You are stuck in place, trying to move chess pieces that aren’t yours to move.

Have you ever experienced this?

You've done your best. You’ve tried everything. But it’s hard for you to “quit”. You just don’t do that, you keep fighting the good fight.

You try to save every situation because you’re too smart and knowledgeable to allow “failure”.

But this is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.

Why are you killing yourself trying to bailout out a sinking, rusted ship when 100 yards away is a beautiful lagoon where some people are having a luau on the beach?

Should you keep bailing and maybe go down with the ship? Or should you jump off and swim to shore and join those people enjoying themselves on the beach?

You are using up valuable time and creativity, wasting energy that could be focused on your next project. On something that will make you money and feed your spirit rather than suck you dry and kill your spark.

Letting go is a process. It requires faith.

Having faith in yourself.

You have to know that this situation is one footnote in one chapter in a long book with many more chapters waiting to be written.

So picture yourself letting go. 


Jump. 


You’re in the water swimming. They see you and are waving to you to join them.

You’re on the beach.