Let Go

The person closest to me in the world had their performance review last week.

He mentioned about two weeks ago that he wanted some coaching to prepare for this (this is something I get paid big bucks to do for others on a regular basis and am very skilled at—I was happy to be asked to provide my expertise and to impact our family’s income).

Then, while brushing our teeth one night last week, he casually mentioned that he had gotten the date wrong and the deadline for submitting information for his review, had come and gone.

My brushing stopped, my jaw dropped and I stood in disbelief (this has actually happened many times before .... I’ll let you run with your theory around this one). Right away, I could feel an army of thoughts lining up in my mind, preparing for rapid fire.

A few days later I was wrapping up an intense week and lots of work deadlines in order to be able to head to the beach for the weekend with my family Saturday morning. I experienced a series of stressful events that afternoon—a schedule glitch, a miscommunication, a technical malfunction, a lost check, a plan that fell to pieces—that left me feeling like everything was going from bad to worse.

It felt like I was sitting on a pile of tumbled dominoes and my swirling negative thoughts were preparing to move from a small tornado into a powerful full-scale downward spiral.

But after I heard the news from my beloved about his performance review and my harried work day turned south (and I stewed for a few minutes)—something surprising happened.

I paused.

Feeling how familiar this terrain was in both instances, I asked myself, “Is this REALLY where you want to go with this?” No. What I really wanted was to just let it go. And that's what I did.

I think it’s so easy to forget we always have the ability to just LET GO. I don’t always do it and sometimes the allure of a good argument is more than I can resist. But, more and more, I’m pausing to check in and ask if this is really the train I want to get on right now? Or do I want to wave it on, and let it keep going.

P.S. Interested in meeting monthly with other women who also want to practice pausing and letting go? Join thousands of women around the world who are gathering in small intentional self-renewal circles. And, join people everywhere who are learning to Live Inside Out (become a fan on the Live Inside Out Facebook page). Want to taste a self-renewal circle? Don’t forget to sign up for the free June 11th for our PRG “Sampler.”

The Journey, a blog about coach/author/entrepreneur Renee Trudeau’s personal journey to life balance and living life from the inside out, comes out weekly. Subscribe here. For more information on Renee’s upcoming events, click here.

Photo: Renee Peterson Trudeau, Hoh Rainforest, Olympic National Peninsula, WA.