You Can't Live an Epic Life if You Never Let Go of Your Past – Get Busy Living

What do you do when life throws a right hook to your face? It can feel like the end of the world. You fail a big test, you don’t get the job you want, you get laid off from your dream job, you partner tells you “we need to talk”.

Plans that you had for your future are gone in an instant.

It happens a lot. Some people never recover from it because they hold on to so much anger about it. They replay the past over and over in their head wondering why it had to happen to them.

While others decide to let it go and begin a new journey that turns out to be even better than the original plan.

That happened to my friend Pat Flynn. He had had his dream job of being an architect. Then the economy went down and people were being laid off. He was one of them.

His whole future was now unknown. The plans he had were all gone. Now he couldn’t find a job.

Fast forward to today and he now has a business that earns upwards of $60,000 a month. He’s loving what he does now. I bet he’s glad he was let go because now life is even more amazing.

He wrote a book talking about his journey. It’s called Let Go (affiliate link) and it’s the story about his dream life being shattered when he was let go by his architectural job.

It’s an inspiring book. If you haven’t read it, I do recommend it.

If you know my story or heard my interviews before, you have heard me mention the blog Pat runs called Smartpassiveincome.com. When I decided to turn my life around towards the end of 2010, I found his blog online. I had no idea who he was, but was impressed with how much he was making per month (around $20,000 at that time) and the content he was putting out. I began to read as much as I could and I also started listening to his podcasts.

One of his podcasts had to do with his iPhone app company that he started with a friend. They didn’t know how to program so they outsourced the work. I didn’t realize I could outsource the work overseas. I thought the only way to develop an app was to program it myself.

So I was inspired by what he was able to do and set out to create my first app, Photo 365. It turned out to be a success.

Let Go of the Past

This wasn’t my first attempt at making money online. Everything up to that point had been a failure. I had to let go of my past failures and realize that didn’t define my potential for future success.

I had to let go of the fact I had wasted so many years of my life. I had to let go of blaming others and pointing fingers. When finally let go of everything that had been holding me back, it was like going from first gear to fifth gear in a sport car.

I’m still having to remind myself to let go.

Last week I wrote about some idiot who left a comment on here saying some stupid things. I replied a couple times, but after his last comment, I stopped replying. I really wanted to get in the last word, but I needed to let go. Otherwise his comments would keep bothering me. I would keep thinking about them. He would probably reply again, and I would think of something to say back to him.

It wasn’t helping me at all.

I had to let go and move on. I decided I’ll let him think he’s the king of the world, which is clearly isn’t, and stop responding to his immaturity.

I shared two stories of women who had to let go of pain and anger from people who physically and emotionally abused them. By writing letters to help let go, they were able to move on with their lives.

You might be holding on to something from your past that’s consuming your mind. Maybe you hold a lot of self doubt in your mind. Maybe it’s a grudge with someone. Maybe it’s your past failures.

Whatever it is you have to find a way to let go. It’s the only way you’re going to be happier, successful, and have peace of mind.

Today is Let Go Day

Pat is doing something really cool with his book Let Go. You may have seen it mentioned on other blogs or see it on social media.

Today is Let Go day. What Pat is doing is hosting a two-hour live Ustream broadcast with himself and some special guests. It begins today, June 17th beginning 12:00PM Pacific / 3:00PM Eastern. They’ll talk about their Let Go stories and share stories from the audience as well.

During the broadcast he’ll be holding a giveaway every 15-20 minutes.

Here are the details in put neatly.

What: Two-hour LIVE UStream Broadcast

When: Monday, June 17th beginning 12:00 P.M. Pacific / 3:00 P.M. Eastern

Knowing Pat, he’s going to make it super valuable. I know I’ll be there and hope you can as well.

If you can’t make it, that’s no problem, but just think about one thing that’s been consuming your attention and life, and learn to just let it go. Stop giving it the attention it wants.

You will feel much better about it.

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