'It's Hard to Grow Beyond Something if You Won't Let Go of It.'

Letting go is a skill, a hard-earned one

Emotions are tricky. Psychology too. We might very well realize that moving on from some habit, person or situation is the smart decision but we can oftentimes struggle with it anyway. Or possibly, we might not really want to move away and move on.

Which brings us to the cold reality.

“It’s hard to grow beyond something if you won’t let go of it,” James Clear writes.

Hard. So very hard. Familiarity and comfort within something unhealthy for our lives and high risk to our future can be a difficult to turn away from once and for all.

Yet if we have the power — and maybe we don’t always for different reasons — and still choose not to make a conscious decision and step out of what is becoming a trap or already has become one, then we are at least partially, if not largely or yes, fully responsible for hurting our present and future.

It doesn’t have to be that way. It doesn’t. We can convince ourselves that there is no better alternative or we will keep falling into the trap of habitual thinking and action.

If we find it impossible or close to hopeless to “let go of it,” no matter what “it” is, then confessing that to ourselves is strength, not weakness, and a call to seek assistance is also strength, not weakness. We can come to realize, if not immediately, then eventually that there is power in seeking and accepting assistance if we choose correctly and are open to working in collaboration and following trusted guidance.

Continuing to say “yes” to what we can and should say “no more” to comes with a cost, now and especially later. Saying “yes” to smarter thinking and “that’s enough” to current “addiction” of thought and habit, no matter what “it” is that we should now be saying “goodbye” to can change the trajectory of our lives and the probability of greater benefits.

Michael Toebe writes “Reputation Notes” and is the founder and specialist at Reputation Quality, a practice that serves and assists successful people and organizations in further building reputation as an asset and responsibly, ethically protecting, restoring or reconstructing it.

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