Letting Go of Trying Harder
There is a quote by Rumi where he says we should, “let life live through us.” When I sit with those five words and really break down the meaning of them, it fully captures what it means to live in flow, and it speaks to this idea of not trying harder.
Letting go of trying harder is how you move forward in flow. Trying harder is a form of resistance within ourselves that holds us back from moving forward and truly enjoying life. The only thing trying harder does is keep us stuck in a place we don’t want to be while making us think we are making some sort of progress.
When you try harder, you will miss the forest for the trees. You will put yourself in a sort of tunnel vision state of mind that zooms into the details so much that you miss the bigger picture.
The bigger picture is living in flow. And living in flow is moving forward without the need to zoom in to inspect and control every detail of your journey forward. Let the future unfold on its own. Don’t try to do the unfolding.
For a long time, I tried to do the unfolding of my future. I pushed myself to try harder, and the perfectionist part of me would zoom into every detail, causing me to miss the bigger picture and lose joy in the journey. I found myself in this repetitive, growth-killing cycle until one day I realized the more I tried harder the more it felt…