Giving Up Something to Move Ahead
Last week my therapist Anne made a statement that intrigued me: You must often give up something in order to move ahead. I started thinking about how this applies to an individual’s life and to the world in general and came up with the following:
– A child learning to walk lets go of her mother’s hand.
– A child learning to ride a bicycle rides on her own only when her father lets go of the bike.
– Really learning to swim requires one to give up the fear of drowning. (This obviously means that I have not REALLY learned to swim.)
– Experiencing sex requires the loss of virginity.
– Accepting a full-time job means the loss of leisure time.
– Having children (usually) means a diminished degree of spontaneity.
– Getting a pet means giving up freedom to travel easily.
– A reduced range of motion comes with getting older.
– (On a more positive note) Retiring from a full-time job means a loss of scheduled commitment.
– Our country gave up its clean air and water to move into the industrial age.
– I would like to think we will some day give up our reliance on fossil fuels to gain energy independence.
I will continue to add to this list. If you have ideas, send me a comment.
– A child learning to walk lets go of her mother’s hand.
– A child learning to ride a bicycle rides on her own only when her father lets go of the bike.
– Really learning to swim requires one to give up the fear of drowning. (This obviously means that I have not REALLY learned to swim.)
– Experiencing sex requires the loss of virginity.
– Accepting a full-time job means the loss of leisure time.
– Having children (usually) means a diminished degree of spontaneity.
– Getting a pet means giving up freedom to travel easily.
– A reduced range of motion comes with getting older.
– (On a more positive note) Retiring from a full-time job means a loss of scheduled commitment.
– Our country gave up its clean air and water to move into the industrial age.
– I would like to think we will some day give up our reliance on fossil fuels to gain energy independence.
I will continue to add to this list. If you have ideas, send me a comment.
posted by Barbara at 10:14 AM
2 Comments:
Giving up, letting go. Those all thought provoking examples. We often do have to give up something in order to add something new, often better, to our lives. I had never thought of it as giving up. I did think though, when I got divorced, of things I had to let go. The biggest thing was anger. If I kept my hurt/anger/animosity it would only eat at my insides and alienate those closest to me. There was lots of anger. Letting it go was very liberating. Possibly as liberating as being able to ride a bike without an adult's hand on the handlebars. FL
- Giving up unhealthy food you crave (e.g. chocolate bars, whip cream, etc.) to improve your health.
- Let go of fear of failure in order to succeed
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