Let Go or Be Dragged

“Let Go or Be Dragged” – (Zen saying)

There is a fine line between determination, perseverance and drive – and stubbornness, miscalculation and misjudgment.

Knowing when to “let go or be dragged” can sometimes be calculated through the awareness of patterns.  Let me explain.

Chris has been let go from every job they have, generally after two years.  They consistently receive feedback that they are not responsive enough when challenges arise and tend to hold fast to “tried and true” ways they have always worked, while being closed to feedback and suggestions for improvement.  Chris continues to hold on to the notion that it is the employer and other colleagues who just don’t understand them and their ideas.

Chris perseveres in explaining to others why they do the things they do.  Chris is determined to get others to comply with their way of thinking.  Chris is driven to get their way. But clearly this is not benefitting them.

If Chris could pull back and look at the patterns that have occurred throughout their life, they would realize that in every relationship, personal or business, and in every job they have had, they receive the same feedback, over and over again.

Eventually Chris will exhaust their career opportunities, relationships and potential for success and happiness.  Chris is an example of “let go or be dragged.”

I encourage you to take a few moments to reflect on your life.  Do you keep “knocking your head against a brick wall?”

• Do you lose friends repetitively?
• Do you keep cycling through damaging intimate relationships?
• Do you continue to receive the same feedback from different people?
• Have you lost your job for the same reasons over and over again?

Maybe it’s time to step back.  What patterns can you observe in your life?  Perhaps, the lesson to be learned is that you need to change how you are thinking and what you are doing.  There can be fear in changing how we see ourselves, relate to others or examine our own shortcomings. But this is the only way to break the self-sabotaging cycles in our personal and business lives.

Maybe it’s time to let go – or be dragged!

By Donna Marshall, M.A., Counselling Psychology, RP, CEO and Co-Founder

Let Go or Be Dragged (Zen saying)