Letting go is not quitting. It’s not giving up. It’s not failing. It’s simply understanding that some endings are sad for a little while but they lead to a happy one and some goodbyes are hard for some time until they steer us to better beginnings.
Letting go doesn’t mean you don’t know how to keep things or make things work. It doesn’t mean that you like inconsistency or instability. It simply means that you can’t win everything no matter how hard you try because some things are not meant to be yours. You won’t win every prize. You won’t always be number one and that’s a blessing because sometimes we focus too much on winning that we forget what we’re really going after. We focus too much on getting what we want without really probing if it’s really the best thing for us. We try to get ahead of everyone else even if we’re in the wrong race.
I remember how I was so bad at letting go because I took it personally. I felt like it said something about me. It told people I’m flakey or I can’t hold onto things like everyone else but then I realized that there is no point in being stubborn or fighting for people who broke your heart. There is no point in trying to prove that you were right by throwing yourself into the fire and expecting not to burn.
And that’s when I learned the importance of letting go when things are over because the truth is, some things end long before we say they’re over. Sometimes things end long before we’re ready and the illusion of having them is ten times worse than the reality of letting them go.
Letting go is not giving up. It’s giving something up for better things to come your way. It’s losing something small to win something bigger. It’s hurting for a little while so you can heal forever.
By Rania Naim for ThoughtCatalog