the art of letting go

“Let go of what no longer serves you.”

Just because it’s plastered on a million Pinterest boards doesn’t make it bad advice, and “what’s not serving you” is really pretty simple:

It’s the “friend” who frustrates you again and again by only reaching out when they need something.

It’s the shirt you bought on sale even though it doesn’t fit you quite right and therefore makes you feel bad about your body whenever you put it on.

It’s the unfulfilling job that makes you want to rip your hair out and also your coworkers’ hair out and also everybody’s damn hair out because you’re not empowered to reach your potential there.

So basically: You interact with a thing, the thing makes you feel shitty, you remove the thing from your life!

Easy, right? But what about when the impact of the thing isn’t so obvious? What about when it doesn’t make you angry, it’s not frustrating, it doesn’t hurt you or anyone you love, it’s not even boring? How are you supposed to know if it’s not serving you?

Allow me to introduce: friction.

Friction is a subtle little bastard, and it builds up in the worst kind of way – especially in business, where we get lost in tasks and routines and client work and daily to-do lists.

It creeps up on you when you’re hard at work, doing what you always do. One day you just don’t feel excited like you used to. The work feels difficult when it used to be so easy. You can’t think of anything positive to say about it. You subconsciously avoid it. It isn’t just one day of feeling off, or lazy, or uninspired. It’s every. single. stupid. day.

THAT is the work that’s the hardest to let go of. It’s not always easy to pinpoint what’s creating the friction, and when you do finally figure it out? You talk yourself out of letting it go! You resist the pull of change because you can’t imagine all of the time/money/energy you’ve invested going to waste.

You think that because you poured so much into what you’re doing, that means you’re “supposed” to be doing it. You have to be doing it. FOREVER! NO EXCEPTIONS!!!

But you gotta trust this feeling because it’s inevitable that you evolve as a person, and your business has to evolve with you.

You must be willing to dive into the messy process of figuring out what’s creating friction, and then you have to commit to the hardest part: allowing yourself to let go of it.

And that’s HARD! I know how hard it is. Because you’ve worked your ass off to get where you are.

So do it the easy way. Try just one day without the work that’s creating friction, and see how it feels. Do the work you feel like doing instead, and see how that feels. Let yourself be honest about what you’d rather be spending your time on, do that, and see how it feels. Stop resisting. Just for one day.

You may find it’s not what you’re doing that’s creating friction, just how you’re doing it.

You may discover a new facet or opportunity within what you’re already doing.

But most importantly you’ll realize how easy, exciting, and fulfilling your business can be without it.