Letting Go and Focusing On What You Can Control

There are two important elements necessary to let go successfully.

One: Take healthy action as you move toward something positive, something new, something exciting, something challenging in you life

Two: Focus only on what you can control.

Although you cannot change past events, you can control your present day reactions to the past. One way to do that is to choose to live your life today – without yesterday’s hanging shadow. An appropriate quote for this comes from Dave Ramsey, author of The Total Money Makeover. Ramsey writes, “If you will live like no one else, later you can live like no one else.”

My interpretation of living like no one else is to spend time focusing only on what I can control and to exercise what I call the “today philosophy” in my daily living. This means I have replaced expressions that begin with:

One day I will…; I’m working on it…; Eventually I will…;

…with expressions such as:

Today, I will…; and, I am…

As for you, today is the day you can choose to change your internal dialogue.
Today—not “one day”—you can begin to love yourself better.
Today—not “one day”—you can begin to let go of stuff.

You also can create mental expectations of any future outcomes you want in life. Henry David Thoreau is credited with this quote, “If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.”

Focusing your time and energy on your own attitude, actions, reactions, thoughts, and dreams narrows the playing field, and keeps life simpler, easier, and uncomplicated. However, when you try to control the actions, attitudes, schedules, and thoughts of everyone else, life not only gets more complicated, but you might push away those who care for you.

Think on it!