6 Things You Should Let Go of This Year

6 Things You Should Let Go of This Year

Have a brand new you this year by letting go of these things that hold you back.

Your pride

In some situations, pride is a good thing. When taken to its logical conclusion, though, it may be a destructive force that can devastate your career and personal life. You may refuse to see your faults if your pride gets in the way, which means you will never learn.

This can prevent you from progressing at work or seeing the other side of a conflict with a partner, friend, or coworker. Relationships can be ruined by pride. So let it go before it ruins your happiness any further.

The need to be in control

The need to be in command is closely tied to the desire to be certain. Isn't that, after all, what the demand for assurance is all about? You have more influence over a situation when you are certain—as long as you are not assured of complete calamity.

When we seek assurance, that is frequently what we hope to discover. We want to know for certain that we are in charge of our fates.

A culture that feeds the notion of the "self-made person" doesn't help this desire. Here's the truth: there is no such thing. We don't live in a vacuum, and we all rely on other people or situations to go our way at times.

Nobody in the world succeeds without a little bit of luck. You don't have complete control over everything that happens to you. The sooner you embrace this, the sooner you may begin to develop a better mindset that is in tune with this ever-changing reality.

Concentrating on the negativity

Life treats everyone equally - each person has a few things to be very happy about, and a few things that can cause stress and unhappiness. Concentrating on the negative aspects of our lives makes us ungrateful for all the good things that we got going on.

Ever heard that saying, “Energy flows where attention goes”? This is a very accurate saying because the human mind can divert its attention away from things. This is a skill that must be developed - in the sense that we must focus on the positive things going on in our lives and as far as possible, ignore the bad parts. After all, the light would be of no value if there was no darkness, and the dark would not be intimidating if there was no light.

Anybody who focuses on negativity radiates it in every environment they are part of. Do not be that person - because choosing negativity allows it to consume you. Focus on positivity through counting your blessings and writing the things you’re grateful about in a journal. This will help you express the feelings of gratefulness that would otherwise be overshadowed by the negative thoughts and feelings.

Taking a minute to evaluate situations before reacting can greatly boost our confidence and help us avoid looking immature or weak in front of others. Keeping our emotions pre-calculated and thought out can greatly boost our internal self-confidence - which makes us look mature and calculative externally.

Choosing the easy path

Often, we humans tend to become lazy and we are less willing to take the harder path to success. Nothing that comes easy in this life stays for too long. The most difficult challenge is to work hard towards something honestly and to carry out our responsibilities in this world with the utmost diligence. We all have responsibilities, towards our friends, our family, or our significant others.

Sometimes, there may be obstacles in your life which cause you to face greater amounts of difficulty - but at this moment we are faced with a contradiction. Our minds may try to trick us, to use the difficulties as an excuse to avoid our duties, but we must resist this temptation. We must do our best to overcome the difficulty rather than use it as an excuse to not do what we must do for ourselves.

The easy path is often chosen because it seems effortless, but humans are made to work hard. This is the reason why after a day’s hard work, we can have the most peaceful sleep. Bold and decisive human beings always choose the hard path, because challenging conditions shape the human character, and our loyalty towards our duty and our morals shape our discipline.

Being too materialistic

Today, we live in a world that is too materialistically influenced. We live, breathe and eat in a socially influenced world where status symbol is given higher importance than mental, physical, and financial well-being. People may want to shop whenever they feel low and spend absurd amounts of money on things they do not need just to feel better.

Relying on materialistic indulgences to feel better can make a person spend beyond their means and rely their happiness on their possessions– which can ruin the quality of their lives. Taking too much debt to buy things that you do not need can cause unnecessary stress and financial burden in your life.

Separate yourself from materialistic possessions and enjoy your life for the most basic things - enjoy the things which humans were given by God - the sound of birds from the trees amidst an orchard, or the sound of calmness from a riverside. Materialistic things tend to make people extremely vulnerable and greedy. Do not live above your means, rather - seek happiness in self-development, exercise, meditation, and hobbies that you may have left behind.

Being too critical

Human beings are the embodiment of what intelligence and the gift of life can bring. We have so much potential, so much to offer to the world. Yet, most of us spend so much time criticizing and judging people who we know personally. Judging others constantly for their shortcomings stops us from becoming reasonable individuals.

Being kind to people makes us the best version of ourselves. Everyone is going through something that we do not know about. Being kind to our peers, acquaintances, and friends is the least we can do. Criticism is strictly professional in some environments, especially in educational institutions and workplaces. But being overly critical to people who we know in our personal lives (friends, family) can be cruel and can hurt people who care about us. Discontinue the spiral of judging people and start being empathetic towards everybody.