Sometimes in life you simply have to let go, and letting go can be difficult particularly if you've been invested in a person, project, event or endeavor for a significant amount of time and depth.
Why do we let go, and how can we do that with grace and thoughtfulness?
It took me some time to let go of my teaching career, in fact, I'm still invested in education and may return to teaching in some way in the future, but in general, I've let go of the role as a full time public school elementary teacher. I invested 34 years in that career, and 99.9% of the time I was fully invested in the success of my students, school and profession. I rarely had to coax myself to get up the energy or investment to do the job. Instead, I was passionate about my position and work, and that was a great gift to me and my work. Yet, the time came due to COVID, the care of my parents, and a few other more personal factors that made it the right time to let go. I stayed in close touch for some time, and now I still like to hear the stories from my old school, but I've moved on to other areas of life. I've let go.
Sometimes we make a choice to let go because we decide not to invest ourselves fully into a person, endeavor, project or event. For example, when it comes to family events, I'm happy to let other family members lead many aspects of our gatherings. I don't have to be in charge of all the details, yet I like to play a role and do what I can. In any collaborative event, there are areas that I manage/partake and areas I let go of. Rarely can one person be responsible for all aspects of a project, event or endeavor--for success, you have to take the lead and help out in some endeavors while letting go of others.
It's much easier to let go in collaborative settings if you've made the time to coordinate your efforts upfront. Talking out all facets of an endeavor, deciding on roles and sharing vision can help a collaborative event go well and make it easier to let go of some aspects of the event planning and result. It's a lot more difficult to let go if that trust or planning is not there--that's when you might hold the reins tighter because you know that if the job's not done well, it will make more work for everyone or create some havoc too.
Some of us desire more control than others and find it more difficult to let go. That can happen for all kinds of reasons, and I believe that those of us that grew up with less surety about people, places and events, may desire a bit more control than those who grew up with greater security.
Bottom line is that we can't hold tight to every single aspect of life. We simply have to let go now and then by sharing the responsibilities and going along with others' decisions and leadership. That's a better way. Onward.