Ray's Daily

Ray’s Daily

January 7, 2022

http://rays-daily.com

“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”

Herman Hesse

Here we go again, it is time to let another week go by. For some of us it is an opportunity to accept what is ond focus of what we can do with the future. The problem is that many of us waste time trying to change things we can’t change, rather than focusing our efforts on things we can do something about.

A while ago Angel Chernoff published a piece on letting go of things we can do nothing about so we can free ourselves to do what really makes a difference. Here is what she wrote:

20 Things You Gradually Learn as You Let Go of the Uncontrollable

Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in your journey. It’s always necessary to accept when some part of your life has reached its inevitable end. Closing the door, completing the chapter, turning the page, etc. – it doesn’t matter what you title it; what matters is that you find the strength to leave in the past those parts of your life that are over.

It’s all about embracing the truth: What has happened is uncontrollable; what you do now changes everything! Of course, knowing this and actually living a lifestyle that reinforces this truth are two very different things. Letting go is NOT easy – it’s a journey that is traveled one day at a time. If you stick with it, here’s what your journey will ultimately teach you:

• The most powerful changes happen in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over everything you don’t.
• Most people make themselves unhappy simply by finding it impossible to accept life just as it is presenting itself right now.
• If you worry too much about what might be, and wonder too long about what might have been, you will ignore and completely miss what is.
• When you are lost in worry, it is easy to mistake your worries for reality, instead of recognizing that they are just thoughts. Mindfulness is the remedy.
• The biggest obstacle to growth you’ll ever have to overcome is your mind. Once you can overcome that, you can overcome anything.
• Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a little while, and that includes YOU.
• You won’t always have it easy, but there is always a reason to be grateful. And the greatest gift of your gratitude is that the more grateful you are, the more present you become.
• The secret to getting ahead is to focus all of your energy not on fixing and fighting the old, but on building and growing something new.
• Letting go doesn’t mean you don’t care about something or someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only thing you really have control over is yourself in this moment.
• In most cases, you can’t calm the storm – it’s not worth trying. What you can do is calm yourself, and the storm will pass.
• You can always control the way you respond to what happens, and in your response is your power.
• Oftentimes letting go is simply changing the labels you place on a situation – it’s looking at the same situation with fresh eyes and an open mind.
• There is absolutely nothing about your present circumstances that prevents you from making progress, one tiny step at a time.
• The day you “understood” everything, was the day you stopped trying to figure everything out. The day you find peace and freedom again will be the day you let everything go.
• You must let go of certainty. And you must remember that the opposite of certainty is not uncertainty, it’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace life as it is, rather than resisting it. The ultimate challenge is to accept yourself exactly as you are, and accept life just as it is, but never stop trying to learn and grow to the best of your abilities.
• Underneath it all, the hardest part is not really letting go, but rather learning to start over.
• Stepping onto a brand new path is difficult, but not more difficult than remaining in a situation that no longer fits, or no longer exists.
• Sometimes it takes a little heartbreak to shake you awake, help you let go, and show you that you are worth so much more than you were settling for.
• When it comes to social drama, letting go of other people’s rude remarks is the best step forward. Most haters don’t really hate you; they just hate where they are in life, and you’re a reflection of what they wish to become.
• Your heart might be bruised, but it will gradually heal and become capable of feeling the beauty of life once again. It’s happened to you before, and it will happen again – life is always changing. When something ends or someone leaves, it’s because something else or someone else is about to arrive – you will feel alive and whole again soon.

~~~

“The truth is, unless you let go, unless you forgive yourself, unless you forgive the situation, unless you realize that the situation is over, you cannot move forward.”

Steve Maraboli

~~~

A millionaire had fallen ill. All the doctors that were consulted did not seem to understand what ailed him. The millionaire let it be known that any doctor who could heal him could have whatever he desired. A country doctor was able to cure him, and as the doctor was leaving after a week’s stay, the rich man said, “Doc! I am a man of my word. You name it, and if it is humanly possible, I’ll get it for you.”

“Well,” said the doctor, “I love to play golf, so if I could have a matching set of golf clubs, that would be fine.” With that, the doctor left. The doctor didn’t hear from the millionaire for some months. Then one day, he got a phone call from him.

“Doc, I bet you thought that I had gone back on my word. I have your matching set of golf clubs. The reason it took so long is that two of them didn’t have swimming pools, and I didn’t think they were good enough for you. So I had pools installed, and they’re all ready for you now!”

~~~

To be satisfied with what one has, that is wealth.

Mark Twain

~~~

A friend and his wife were considering traveling to Alaska for a trip that the husband had long dreamed of taking. He kept talking about how great it would be to stay in a log cabin without electricity, to hunt moose, and drive a dog team instead of a car.  

“If we decided to live there permanently, away from civilization, what would you miss the most?” he asked his wife.  

She replied, “You.”  

~~~

The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain.

Dolly Parton

~~~

Deciding to take up jogging, the middle-aged man was astounded by the wide selection of jogging shoes available at the local sports shoe store. While trying on a basic pair of jogging shoes, he noticed a minor feature and asked the clerk about it.

“What’s this little pocket thing here on the side for”?

“Oh, that’s to carry spare change so you can call your wife to come pick you up when you’ve jogged too far.”

~~~

Times have sure changed. Yesterday a bum asked me if I could spare $2.75 for a double cappuccino with no foam.

Bill Jones

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A woman who works for the state of California got a call from a man who paused when she told him the name of her agency. He then asked her to repeat it. “It’s the Governor’s Office for Elderly Affairs,” she told him again.

There was another pause. “For gosh sakes, sign me up,” he said. “I didn’t do too well when I was young.”

~~~

“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”

Tony Schwartz

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Management is not responsible for duplicates from previous dailies. The editor is somewhat senile.

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