Despite what we’ve been led to believe, we cannot have it all. Fortunately in life we encounter many things not worth having. The challenge lies in making the distinction between who and what is worth holding onto and who and what should be kicked to the curb.

I’m at a place in life where I’m realizing that some things are just gonna have to go in order to make room for what’s truly important to me. I’m making a lot of choices, some of which are much harder than others. But letting go of some things is enabling me to fully commit to others. As a result, I’m getting BIG things done at a rate I’ve never experienced.

When we try to hold onto the wrong things, we’re like hamsters in a wheel: working our butts off but getting nowhere fast.

What about you? Are you needing to make some hard choices about what to hold onto and what to let go of? If so, here are some things I’m learning through my own process that may help:

STUFF:

• Keep what you use, what you find beautiful and inspiring, what has meaning. Note that these things are usually not found in a box in your garage.
• Toss, sell or give away the rest. Easier said than done, I know, and I’m in no where shape or form there. But it’s something I aspire to and, for me, an idea worth holding onto.

JOB:

• Stay where you feel valued, challenged, appreciated by your leadership and compensated at a rate that is worthy of your time and talent.
• Leave a place where the stress, workload and corporate politics are so constant they begin to manifest in you physically. On the opposite side of this, leave a place when your work is so mind-numbingly simple and boring that find yourself constantly watching the clock. You are capable of so much more and you know it.

PEOPLE:

• Hold onto people with whom you share a meaningful history, the ones who laugh at your stories, the ones who know who you really are and who will not allow you to sell yourself short.
• Say good-bye to those who use you or cause you pain regardless how good they may be in the sack or how sad their “story” is. You deserve better.

DREAMS:

• Hold onto every single one with this caveat: put most of them on your back-burner / someday-maybe list. When you start letting go of other things, you’ll give yourself more time to devote to what really matters to you (which is the ultimate link to your life’s purpose). In the mean time,  identify the ones you would most regret if you left this world and never saw them through, and then commit to making them happen. Committing means putting a project plan together. It means identifying next actions and actually ACTING upon them.

Committing means saying with every ounce of your being…….. “In this life I Will”