A few years ago, I had a series of heart attacks.  From out of nowhere they stopped me in my tracks and made me reconsider everything about my life.  You could say they were a major crossroads. I’ve spent a great deal of time since focussed on “letting go” of the feelings I was left with. Feeling that I’d been deprived of the future I’d been planning, only getting a brief example of what lay ahead. The perfect business collaborations and friendships formed, all to be knocked back.  

I think it was only yesterday that it hit me. I’d been so busy trying to let go, I had forgotten to look forward. To plan a new way, to explore what I have now that will shape a new path.

We have to pass through stages of letting go

When life changes mean we have to make new choices, we must allow ourselves a period of time to adjust. That time required for acceptance to replace anger and frustration. Time that heals initial pain and confusion and stops us asking “why did this happen to me?”
That replaces it with “what can I do now that this has happened?”
And finally, “I’m ready to see a future, how ever different it looks to the one I imagined.”

When I was 26, I had a car accident that left me in a wheelchair for almost 12 years. One of my key learnings from this experience was that we have to mourn things we loose, not just people. I lost the use of my legs at 26. I had to mourn all the things I had lost from my independence to my joy of mountain climbing.  I had suffered a loss, a bereavement, the death of my life the way it had always been.

The last few years have been my time to adjust. To come to terms with my latest loss. The belief that my heart was strong and would work, without me thinking about it, for many years to come.  Once you’ve lived through the heart attacks, the surgery, the physical recovery, the news of heart-failure, the difficulty breathing and total inability to do much of anything without help from others, you start to accept.  Acceptance that you are a different person, physically, and that means mentally too.  Acceptance that life is not going to look how you imagined, or planned. Acceptance that every day is rather special, precious, too important to waste on worries and concerns.

Moving forward from letting go means making plans again

Now, I’ve reached the point of planning for a future; that feels amazing.  Seriously, when you’ve spent a few years not knowing if you’re going to make it, you see every single day as a bonus. Even the ones where you feel negative and scared and less than great. Because it’s been such an enormous effort, on the part of so many, to make it here.  Planning can take on a whole new meaning now. Not just something I’m told to prepare for my business to thrive, but instead, a plan for my life. To live every day as though it might be the last chance I get to enjoy feeling this good.  I’m reminded of a song by Tim McGraw, “My next thirty years”. The lines speak to me of making every moment count.

My focus now is changing, from letting-go to letting-in. I’ve pondered enough times to last me a long life, what might have been if I hadn’t had the heart-attacks.  It is time to let in the new, embrace the opportunities starting to come my way. With my new focus, my new goals in place.  

‘I trust you. Go get ’em girl. It’s time!

Often we’re not open to new opportunities because we’re so focussed on the past. The ones we think we missed or messed up.  Not for me, that time in my life is through. I know I have limits. My heart is depending on me to look after it and make sure I stick to those limits and behave.  And it’s also telling me in a loud, strong, clear voice “I trust you. Go get ’em girl. It’s time!”

And it is time. Time to move forward.  Time to let go of the letting-go and time to get on with the next chapter of this remarkable life.

Dinah x

If you’re ready to start moving on from letting-go and you’d like to work with a Coach to support you in the process, why not book a taster mindset coaching session with me? You can book straight into my diary here.