When our girls were little, they loved going to parks and playgrounds. It was exhausting just watching them run from one thing to the next. Naturally, they wanted to make it as challenging as possible on their young, overly protective parents – so they’d each head off in different directions.
Emily’s favorite playground destination was the swings. Stephany’s was the merry-go-round. Brittany’s was whichever one she happened to be on at the time.
Stephany, the youngest, always had to do what her big sisters did. Never mind the fact that she was younger, smaller, and in her mother’s play book, supposed to stay a baby. When she wasn’t much bigger than a penguin, Steph decided that she wanted to master the monkey bars as beautifully as Emily and Brittany had.
Her little arms could barely even reach, so her daddy and I would hold her up there trying to encourage her to go from rung to rung.
The thing was, she never wanted to let go of the first one. Emily would stand nearby coaching her, “Steph! You have to let go of THIS one so you can reach out for THAT one.” Brittany would have echoed the sentiments but she would have had to slow down from warp speed to do so.
Not happening.
Still not happening.
So, we had one little live wire bopping from one thing to the next, a daddy smiling because everything “the baby” did was too cute to believe, one tiny life coach with all the answers (if only little sister would listen) and one mother telling her youngest child, “That’s okay, baby, let’s go sit down. Big bad playground.”
I’m reasonable like that.
Stephany and her monkey bars actually make a perfect illustration for those of us who are much bigger. Much older. We all have certain areas in life where someone could very well yell out to us, “You have to let go of THIS one so you can reach out for THAT one!”
Very often, the secret to success and the key to overcoming life’s setbacks lie in these simple words: Let go and move on.
Some people have trouble moving on from a broken relationship. This particular refusal to let go and move on drives me all kinds of crazy. What kind of happiness and joy could they be missing out on?! If they keep looking back, they just might miss something beautiful right in front of them. The one person in the world who could make them forget all about the other one might be just around the corner.
What a shame it’d be to miss them!
Some people are guilty of doing what I call an Emotional Return to the Scene of the Crime. Something bad happened to them (loss of a loved one, a broken relationship, loss of a dream house, loss of a job, financial catastrophe, business failure….) but instead of letting go and moving on, they sort of keep one hand on the rung in the past.
Some people hold on so tightly and for so long it’s a wonder their hand doesn’t fuse to the symbolic rung.
As long as you hold on to something behind you, you aren’t completely free to reach out to what’s in front of you. I’m all for putting up a good fight and I’m all about perseverance but, let’s be honest, sometimes it’s time to just let go.
If you can think of anything you’ve been clinging to that you know – in your heart of hearts – is holding you back, please consider declaring your freedom from it today. Let go. Move on. Be free.
“You have to let go of THIS one so you can reach out for THAT one!”