In 2019, Commit to Letting Go
Years ago when I seriously studied martial arts, a classmate asked our teacher “when are we going to learn how to grapple?” If you are not familiar with the term “grapple,” it relates to using holds and grabs as part of your self defense style.
My wise instructor stated “I won’t teach you how to grab on until I’m first convinced that you know how to let go.”
When that same classmate asked what he meant by that, my instructor had him stand up and grab onto our instructor’s wrist.
“Grab onto my wrist,” our instructor told him. “Be sure to grab on good and tight. Don’t let me slip out of your grip.” The classmate used all of his strength to get a solid grip on our instructor’s wrist.
“Do you have a good grip?” our instructor asked.
“Sure do” said my classmate.
“Question for you,” the teacher said, “who exactly has who?”
With that, our instructor jerked his arm towards his own center, sinking at the waist to add the power of his body. The student, holding on with a death grip, was yanked off his feet and sailed through the air. As he passed in front of our instructor, out teacher rotated his body, drew his other arm up, and stepped into the flying young man with his elbow…stopping a half inch from the student’s face.
Satisfied that he had made his point, our teacher continued. “The problem with grabbing on is that either you or your opponent can use that grip…unless…you first learn how to let go. In order for me to teach you how to grab on and use that grip properly, you must first learn to ‘let go’ at LEAST as fast as you are able to ‘grab on.’ Once you learn how to ‘let go’ that fast, THEN you will be ready to learn how to grab on and how to use that grip.”
I never forgot this lesson from so many years ago. And of course, “letting go quickly” has as much to do with our lives as it does with hand-to-hand combat.
How many of us get dragged through the proverbial mud because we grab onto something in life with a death grip and refuse to let go of it even though it is much bigger than us and heading in a direction we don’t want to go? Or perhaps we grab on with great enthusiasm and do not react to when that very same thing overpowers us and drags us way off course?
Remember this lesson. Sometimes you need to let go of something that is dragging you to the brink of destruction. Perhaps it is a job that is not good for you. Perhaps it is a relationship that is toxic to you. Perhaps it is a habit or an addiction that is ruining your life. Perhaps it is an unwillingness to forgive someone who wronged you. Perhaps it is the very real sorrow of losing someone very close to you that you just cannot reconcile.
Decide now, in the last few hours of 2018, that 2019 will be the year that you learn to let go as quickly as you have learned in life to grab on. Then go out and let go of all of those things that are preventing you from reaching your full potential as a son or daughter of a Divine Being, a God who put you here upon the earth that you might experience mortality outside of His presence, that you might have a chance to choose for yourself what you want your life to be using your very own agency which He has granted unto you.
2018 is almost at a close, and 2019 beckons just beyond midnight tonight. No matter what 2019 brings, fortune or adversity, enter it with the commitment that you will hold on to those things that bring light into your life and soul, and let go of those things that bring only darkness.
Have a very happy New Year, and may 2019 be the very best year ever for you and your loved ones. I look forward to seeing you there!
