Letting go

I am doing the best I can, and sometimes I feel that’s not very good. I persevere, because it’s either that or give up, and I don’t think I am a quitter.

That does bring up another issue, however. Sometimes is is smarter to let go than to hang on. I used to think that was quitting, but I have changed my thinking on that. Letting go is not the same as quitting. I think of quitting as giving up on something. Letting go seems a little different to me. Letting go is done consciously; it is being finished with something that I no longer see as working for me.

Letting go has never been easy for me. Walking away from anything, even something that I know is not working for me, is hard. I, like many others, tend to cling to the familiar, even when I know it is not good for me. The unknown is always scary.

But here’s the thing: it is hard to move on carrying old baggage. Someone once explained it to me this way: if you are hanging onto something tightly with a closed fist, you can’t pick up something new.

This doesn’t mean that everything old is bad, and everything new is good. It is important to be discerning when deciding what needs to go and what can stay. Things that served me well for a while may no longer serve me. However, things that served me well for a while may still serve me well; it is important to look at everything closely and honestly when deciding what has to go.

So I struggle with it, and sometimes it takes me longer to decide to let go than it probably should. But late is better than never, and so I continue to try to do my best.