Four Words That Can Change Your Life

There are four words that can change your life. These four words happen to come from my friends at Alcoholics Anonymous who have many clever and engaging catchphrases such as “One Day at a Time” and “KISS–keep It Simple, Stupid.” But in my estimation, none is more powerful than “Let go, Let God.” I’d like to offer you a somewhat secularized version of this profound piece of wisdom. Specifically this means to let go of the insecurity-driven thinking that’s ruining and ruling your life and let God (or your instincts, intuition, or as the Swiss psychiatrist C.G. Jung referred to this part of the psyche, the “Self” with a capital “S”).

In order to extricate yourself from congested, insecurity thinking, you need to embrace Let Go, let God as your mantra. The opposite, not letting go, is insisting on controlling life in an insecurity-driven, proactive way (i.e., worrying, ruminating, anticipating, etc.). Trying to over control life is choosing a life of struggle, anxiety or depression. But by handing yourself over to that in you which goes beyond the congested ego, you are allowing yourself to truly be reactive, spontaneous, and liberated.

Next time you find yourself spinning with ruminative worry, rather than trying to brace yourself for some future event (a conference with the boss, a root canal, etc.) try to Let Go, Let God, allowing your life to unfold in the present. With a willingness to risk a bit of self-trust, you’ll find that you will handle life effectively, efficiently, and spontaneously. After all, you’ve handled thousands of challenges in the past, what makes you think you won’t handle this one? You’re a survival machine, you’ll do fine if you just trust that you really can handle life…without neurotically anticipating it.