Mark Fritz
Think about mountain climbers working their way up a mountain. They can only climb higher by letting go of one hand and reaching for a higher spot on the mountain. It is the same in our lives, we need to sometimes let go of what we have in order to climb higher and get what we want.
It’s really about letting go of a number of things…
Old Beliefs
Think of old beliefs as our old computer programmes on our PC. We are not using these old programmes anymore because they do not provide us with the functionality we need today. It is the same with our old beliefs. They have enabled us to get to where we are today, but they will never be able to help us climb higher and get to where we want to go. We need to recognise and let go of those old beliefs, and develop new beliefs that will help us climb higher.
Comfort
Comfort is usually the thing that’s blocking us from getting what want want. To get to where we want to go requires us to take different actions that we have been taking (to do something new). So, if we want to stay comfortable, we will never take those new and different actions. We need to let go of comfort and understand that a successful life is being comfortable always being a little uncomfortable. This means we will have to give up some comfort (what we have now) to always be growing and climbing higher.
Even if we are not comfortable, we often don’t make a change because the discomfort is just not bad enough yet. There’s a great story that illustrates this. There’s a boy walking down the street and notices a dog moaning on the porch of one of the houses. The owner is sitting in the rocking chair on the porch, and the boy asks him, “Why is the dog moaning?”, and the owner says “because he is sitting on a nail.” So, the boy asks “…but why doesn’t the dog move?” and the owner replies “because it’s just not hurting enough yet!’. Therefore, we don’t make a change we need to, because it’s just not hurting us enough yet. We think the pain of the change will be more than how the current situation is hurting us. We need to let go of the hurt we know, and commit ourselves to an action that will take us closer to what we want.
The Unimportant
Have you ever noticed that what we add to our to do lists is always greater than what we ever take off? This tells us that we end up doing tasks that we once thought were important, but no longer are. The way to get to where we want to go faster is by letting go of the unimportant tasks, and focusing our time on those important tasks that will enable us to climb higher.
Therefore, to climb higher, we need to be “Letting Go” of Old Beliefs, Comfort, and the Unimportant.
What should you be “Letting Go” of today?
Mark Fritz is an international leadership speaker & Managing Director of Procedor, an international consultancy focused on helping international business leaders to achieve even greater success in leading across distances & cultures. He has lived & worked across the world and speaks regularly on the Power of Ownership in leading today’s organisations.