The Strength To Let Go

Introduction:

Welcome my friend,

How have you been?

This third weekend of the year gives us yet another opportunity to carry forward our New Year Series.

After exploring The Strength To Try Again and The Strength For Firsts these past weeks, today we turn our attention to The Strength To Let Go.

Here, the aim is to identify some of the things that we need to give up in order to align ourselves properly with our goals this year, bringing them to reality.

In many cases, these are the very things we still cling to with all our heart, placing us at painful crossroads: a sacrifice we must weigh carefully, wondering if the price is one we’re truly willing to pay.

This tension, this inner struggle, is exactly what today’s conversation is about.

Discussion:

There’s a timeless saying that goes like this: “If you’re brave enough to say goodbye, life will reward you with a hello.”

More than anything, this truth reveals something profound: it takes genuine strength, sometimes tremendous strength, to let go of things we still very much want to hold onto, even when they're no longer serving us, growing us, or moving us toward the life we want.

Truly, this isn't because we're unwise or can't see their repercussions but because it's human nature to want to hold on to things we enjoy or make us happy, even at such steep costs.

The thing is, when we honestly reflect on the years gone by, one major reason so many of our goals have remained just out of reach is that we haven't become the person capable of achieving and living them.

Yet, becoming that person also means being willing to give up these very things, saying goodbye to them.

Sadly, many of us aren’t even clearly conscious of what these things are specifically, as some of them have become so familiar and so woven into our daily rhythm, that we don’t recognize them as the very things holding us back.

Which makes pointing out some of them a good place to start.

■ Identifying The Things That We Need To Let Go

Most of the time, until we deliberately create space for something new, the old will keep crowding in, quietly blocking the path between us and what we truly want.

This is exactly why real, lasting success almost always demands a thoughtful clearing out, a gentle but firm release of one or more of these familiar old things, so we can make room to welcome better ones in their place:

▪︎ Mindset 

Everything great begins in the mind.

As the saying goes, whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right either way.

Some of us carry a deeply rooted pessimism, quietly convincing ourselves that success is reserved for “special” people; people who have certain talents, traits, or advantages we’ve accepted that we simply don’t possess.

However, nothing can be further away from the truth.

Every single person who has ever succeeded started with exactly what you and I have: the capacity to grow into the person our dreams require.

The difference being that those who did, chose to believe in themselves enough to back that belief with consistent, courageous effort, until their optimism came through.

Another subtle but powerful limiting mindset is the belief that “everyone who makes it cheats or takes shortcuts.”

This keeps us chasing quick fixes and easy lanes that never actually lead anywhere meaningful.

Truth is, the moment we accept that the success we’re after requires time, because we ourselves need time to become ready for it, the destructive allure of the fast track begins to lose its grip on us.

▪︎ Habits 

Perhaps, the most limiting of all habits when we're looking to achieve a particular goal is poor stewardship of our time.

Many of us have this habit of mostly indulging in unproductive ventures distracted by such pleasures as mindless scrolling of social media, consuming unhelpful content or chitchatting with folks that add no value to us.

Truth is, we all have twenty-four (24) hours in a day and every time spent in frivolous activities take away from the time we would have used in productive things.

▪︎ Patterns 

For some of us, life feels like an endless loop: up one day, crashing down the next, rarely finding steady ground or real momentum.

Often this happens because when we’re in the valley, we suddenly embrace discipline; we get serious, we grind, we show incredible tenacity to climb out.

Yet, as soon as things begin to improve, instead of building on the strong foundation we just laid, we relax, slipping back into old ways and abandoning the very habits that pulled us up.

This pattern keeps us circling the same level, never quite pushing ourselves enough to move to the next one.

▪︎ Relationships 

There are certain people whose very presence in our lives seems to lift the ceiling of what’s possible.

Here, it isn't always because they’re actively coaching or cheering us on, sometimes it's simply because we get to watch them grow, to witness their discipline, their standards, their quiet wins; and realize that “If they can, so can I.”

These are the people who silently model success so that when we begin to imitate their habits, their mindset, their way of moving through the world, we suddenly start rising too.

Yet many of us haven’t made space for these kinds of influences because we’re still deeply tied to people whose limitations, complacency, or small thinking quietly rub off on us.

The hard but honest truth: when we want more from life, we have to accept that some relationships, even ones we still care about deeply, have simply run their course.

Indeed, it's not because the love disappeared, but because staying close to them no longer calls forth our best selves.

▪︎ Comforts 

One of the sweetest, most seductive comforts is the familiarity of staying exactly where we are, same environment, same job, same routines.

However, doing more almost always means stepping away from the known, especially when it no longer offers us a realistic path to the life we want.

At some point we have to be realistic about the quality of opportunities a place offers us, comparing them against the magnitude of our goals.

If there's a clear mismatch, then that place is no longer good for us, regardless of how much we still love to be there.

Summary:

We’ve already covered so much ground today.

However, there’s still a great deal to explore, particularly around why letting go feels so hard, and where we can find the deep inner strength to actually do it.

So rather than keep you here any longer, let’s pause here and pick it right back up next week; same place, same time.

I hope you’ll join me, until then, enjoy this beautiful weekend, my friend.

Master Apprentice.

www.x.com/truekingmaker