Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.” ― Ann Landers
This post was inspired by one of my Tweets where I went on a bit of a rant about something very important I’ve realized after analyzing some of my past mistakes.
Pressure:
With so much pressure from social media, of people with fancy lives, materialistic objects and fake non-stop happiness, we can sometimes feel that we are not doing good enough and that we should try harder.
Social media has not only inspired us to become hard workers, but it’s also inspired us to become obsessed.
Obsession is not a bad thing necessarily, but it can be bad when not used properly. These days we have many cases of obsession, but mostly the obsession of always striving for something better, for something more, for something that we hope will allow us to be truly happy. The truth is happiness can only be found in this exact present moment, sure we all have desires and goals, which we want to achieve, but happiness is found in the NOW. The Power is in the NOW – as Eckhart calls his book. (you need to read it.)
This post, however, is not about the present moment, it’s about letting go.
Obsession, which I mentioned earlier, often leads to us ‘’chasing’’ things. We chase, and we chase and we keep on chasing. We fail to realize that when we chase, the thing that we are trying to grab, will just keep on moving further and further away. When we chase something we’re obsessed with having, we’re like a dog with a short tail, that spends his entire life chasing it, but never manages to do it.
The art of letting go:
So we mentioned what happens when we chase and obsess over something, it moves further away from us. Hmm, doesn’t that make you think, what if we should do the opposite, wouldn’t it make it come closer or even chase us?
The answer is yes.
Letting go is the single most powerful thing you can do to not only achieve your goals but to also make the entire journey and process enjoyable, after all, why would you spend all your life chasing something and feeling absolute misery in the process of doing that.
That’s why letting go is the answer. Let go of the obsession. Stop obsessing over something that you’d like to have or something that you’d like to be and focus on where you are right now. Ask yourself, am I really enjoying the chase.
99.99% of people will answer no because if you have to chase something in the first place, you’re not enjoying the journey.
Become obsessed with the journey, not the destination:
When you love the journey and you are OBSESSED with the journey, not the goal or the desire, you’ll achieve your goals and desires with absolutely no effort. They will arrive by themselves and most of the time you’ll have to spend more time thinking about setting your goals and desires than actually achieving them.
This is what happens when you are OBSESSED with the journey when you love every single thing you do when you enjoy every last second of your journey.
Casey Neistat once said something along the lines of: ‘’I keep thinking about my journey and my work, am I really enjoying this and is this really what I want to do.’’ As long as the answer is yes he will continue, but if the answer is no, he’ll immediately ask himself what is he not enjoying about his journey and what would he WANT to do instead.
This probably sounds very boring to many of you, because you keep hearing it over and over again, but for one last time, I ask you kindly to really think about this.
You’ve ONLY got 1 life, why would you not want to enjoy every last second of it, instead of living like a dog with a short tail, who keeps on trying to reach it, but is never able to.
I hope you found this valuable.
Thanks for your time and support.
Until next time,
Benjamin 🙂