Hermann Hesse said, “Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go.”
According to Collins Dictionary, let go simply means “to set free”. Letting go of the things from our life that don’t serve us anymore, takes a lot of courage. But holding on bad things or experiences weigh us down.
There’s a nice quote of Rumi that says ‘Life is a balance of holding on and letting go”. I personally love this quote very much. Change is not easy in any context, but it is a needed step.
In this blog post, we’ll know 17 such things to let go of that don’t serve us in our life in a positive way. These negative emotions, toxicities, or ways of living life everyone should let go in order to live a healthy and fulfilling life.
Let’s dive in.
17 ways things to let go of –
1. Don’t compare yourself too much with others
Comparing ourselves with others is one of the things we all should let go of. Everybody is different in their own way.
Though we all have unique capabilities, goals, ambitions, dreams, we still expect us to have the same results, same achievements, same failure or no failure, which is not possible at all.
A healthy way of comparison is good at some extent. If we won’t compare our growth, mindset, vibes with someone we look up to, we can’t excel ourselves in our journey.
You know, sometimes we aren’t the one who compares, but it’s the other people around us. Like our family members, relatives, neighbours, friends. And that also affects us negatively. That is why we must let go of the habit of comparing ourselves all the time.
2. Unrealistic expectation
We should be aware about our expectations whether they are realistic or too fantasized.
If we have many unrealistic expectations to ourselves, and can’t accomplish, it leads us to anger, disappointment, frustration and other psychological issues.
We must not burden us with all those negative emotions. Instead of that, learn to let go of them.
We should adjust our expectations with reality and manage compassionately.
3. Saying ‘yes’ to everything
You know, if you say yes to everything (excluding opportunities), you’ll end up losing yourself.
Sometimes we forget to maintain our boundaries and don’t prioritize our own needs. It leads to overcommitment and doing so often takes our energy.
Saying no to the things that don’t matter to us isn’t selfish but takes a lot of courage. Prioritizing what matters to you and setting a healthy boundary is what we must practice.
4. Release attachment to outcomes
Getting attached with every outcome gives stress and anxiety. It’s good to have goals and realistic expectations but being too much attached doesn’t help us.
Because if we fail or don’t get the desired outcomes, we get frustrated and lose so much energy in the process. That is why, don’t get so much involved with the result.
Have aspirations, put efforts to fulfil, have faith in your capability and ultimately enjoy the process.
5. Not investing on yourself
Investing on ourselves is one of the most important things we don’t do often. This is a habit we must let go of. Let’s carve out time for self- care rituals, learning new skills to upgrade ourselves.
Investing on physical as well as mental health isn’t just important, it’s very much needed. It increases self-love, self-confidence.
We get to know some new shades about ourselves. Our productivity and performance get new height. Everybody should let go of the habits of not investing in yourself.
6. Regret
Regret doesn’t help us to reach anywhere, only pulls us backwards. The more time we spend regretting, someone else is moving towards the goal.
There are many reasons of regretting. Some are due to past experiences, unfulfilled goals, missed opportunities, bad decisions and so on.
Regret is a kind of negative emotion which produces negative feelings and affects our mental well-being negatively.
Be empathetic to yourself, don’t waste your energy on regretting, move forward confidently on your journey through life.
7. People pleasing
You know, I believe that the only impossible thing in the world is try to please everyone. You simply can’t. Nobody can. I also tried that, it didn’t work at all.
The thing is, this is disappointing but the more disappointing thing is, we keep doing it repeatedly most of our time. Over time, repeatedly putting others’ needs before your own can lead to neglecting your mental and physical health.
Like dissatisfaction, exhaustion with yourselves increase as you too involve to meet other’s expectations.
People pleasers often put down their own feelings to avoid clashes, because of that everyone takes advantage of them. We must know our boundaries and stop trying to please others.
8. Lack of self-respect
Lack of self-respect is a major setback in our life we should change. Those who don’t have any self-respect, often end up having lot of negative things in life.
Like toxic relationships, bad decision making, low self-confidence, unsatisfied life and many more.
Not having self-respect can affect your overall well-being and happiness. That is why, lack of self-respect is something we must let go of.
9. Fear of failure
Fear of failure is one thing we all experience in life. In the words of Confucius, “Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising every time we fail.”
Failure is an inevitable part of life. No one can deny that fact. Everyone has to face it in order to succeed.
When we try something new in our life, we fear about the mistake, all the unknown consequences. We often fear of failure because of social pressure.
By doing that, we are actually postponing our success and also limiting our potential. The thing is we must let go of this habit, feeling or whatever you say, for our own good. Be a little courageous, you’ll overcome this.
10. Anger
Anger is one of the bad things we must let go of. When we are angry, we can’t think properly.
It is very difficult to focus on things when our mind isn’t calm. Sometimes it is natural to feel anger, but excessive anger can harm our relationship with others as well as ourselves.
There are some general reasons for anger i.e. frustration, stress, bad experiences and so on.
The aftereffect of those emotions are severely negative. Habitual anger affects our both mental and physical health, worsen our relationships. We must let go of this habit by acknowledging the root cause and take action accordingly.
11. Staying in the past
Paulo Coelho said, “the past is a nice place to visit, but not the right place to stay.” Letting go of the past is very much needed for finding inner peace.
Holding onto past means holding not only good memories, but also regrets, suffering, grudges.
By releasing these negative emotions from our life, we can create space for peace and new experiences to enter.
When we let go of the habit of staying in the past, we actually can focus ourselves on the things that matters to us and the possibilities of present and future.
12. Procrastination
Procrastination is a common habit, but it must be discovered and resolve as early as possible in life so that we can’t form a bad habit out of it.
It simply means postponing important works from the scheduled time and eventually make a big pile of them. If it becomes a habit, it can disturb mental health.
When we don’t complete works on time, we feel stressed, guilty, exhaustion later. These emotions affect us negatively. Procrastination is a thing we should let go of to live a stress-free life.
13. Need of approval from others
People love to be recognized and appreciated for their efforts and accomplishments. But it is essential to acknowledge the limitations and drawbacks.
Sometimes we stop pursuing something we are deeply passionate about simply because someone we know doesn’t approve our ideas and decisions.
The need for validation from others can become a bad habit, leading individuals to dependency and insecurity. That is why we must let go the need of approval in everything from everyone in order to live life as we want.
Ultimately, actual fulfilment comes from within, not from the approval of others.
14. Jealousy
Jealousy is a natural human emotion that becomes evident due to various reasons. Such as, uncertainty, lack of security, fear of loss, lack of confidence, inadequacy about yourself and so on.
I don’t think mild jealousy doesn’t harm us much. It helps to motivate a person to take an active step to discover their goal and areas that needs to be improved.
But over-jealousy limits our personal growth and disturbs social connections. Overly jealous people can’t trust others as they always fear of being betrayed. For the negative outcomes, we should let go of jealousy.
15. Stress
Stress kills our happiness. Kelly Clarkson said, “God will never give you anything you can’t handle, so don’t stress.”
Most of the time, we are stressing about the future or, the unknown. We often stress not about what’s happening, but about what could have happened.
Stress causes damage to our mental health as well as physical health. Many problems like high blood pressure, headaches, insomnia, heart problems, depression, anxiety and so on happen for stress. Coping mechanisms are helpful for stress management.
That’s why this is the thing we must let go of as stress has no good side, not a single one.
16. Toxic relationships
Letting go of the toxic relationships from our lives is more that important. For our personal growth, we must remove the toxic people from our life.
But I know, sometimes it is difficult to let go of relationships as we were emotionally involved with them.
Toxicity causes stress, mental health issues and so on. If the people around you are negative, they spread a negative impact on you.
By removing their negative influences, you can create a positive, healthy atmosphere around you and others.
17. Blame
Blaming someone else for your mistake or any work is not at all fair. Not for you, neither for anybody else.
This is not a positive approach. It damages our relationships with others. Whether the result of our works don’t go as planned, we should take the responsibility and control on ourselves.
This shows our maturity and integrity. Instead of blaming others, we should focus on the things that can be improved.
So, we get better results and don’t repeat the same mistakes again. Learn to let go of blaming and focus on improving yourself.
Conclusion
As we have come to an end of our blog, we’ve discovered 17 things we should let go of in order to live a happier, healthier and fulfilling life.
Let me ask you something, when you imagine your future, what do you see yourself letting go of to make room for new growth? Do you find yourself holding onto certain beliefs or attitudes that no longer serve you positively?
If you are dealing with any of those negative aspects or beliefs, you should change them for good.
Answer me in the comments.
Take care,
Make the most of the day…
Until we meet again…