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An interesting thing happened to me the other day: I got what I want…only to discover that I didn’t really want it anymore.
The Sad Story of The Jacket
Last summer, I found a leather jacket online that I loved, but unfortunately, it was a tad out of my price range. For months it sat online, tempting me to blow my budget and just buy it anyways, but I resisted. Around December, the website that was selling it took it down and didn’t even place it in the sale section. I figured the jacket was gone, lost to the ages, and all thought of it went out of my mind.
Yet at the beginning of February, while surfing around the same website, what did I spy lingering in the clearance section? The very same jacket. With its price substantially slashed, I squealed with glee as I pointed, clicked and waited for the long-desired product to reach me.
The day finally came when the UPS lady knocked on my door with the anticipated packaged. I ripped the box open, pulled away the tissue paper, and beheld something I had wanted for almost 7 months.
There was a great feeling of accomplishment and a sense of rightness in the universe, as I ran my hands over the supple brown leather. I smugly smiled to myself and thought, “Wow, this is a great example of the Law of Attraction in action, I have attracted this to me…” I reverently lifted the jacket out of the box, unzipped the front, and slipped it on…
…Only to find out it didn’t fit right.
It zipped up totally fine, the arm length was good, but (like so many tops) the jacket was too tight around the shoulders and upper back. My immediate thought was that I would just exchange the jacket for the next size up. But then I realized that the size I had on was the largest size the jacket came in.
“Maybe I could lose a few,” I desperately thought, as I observed my reflection in the mirror. “Maybe it will stretch out over time,” I hoped.
But the more I reviewed what I saw, the more I realized that there was no way this jacket would ever fit properly (unless I could shrink my skeleton).
How could this have happened? After all, I wanted this, I attracted it to me, the universe seemed to align to get it to me beyond all obstacles, why isn’t this working out flawlessly?
After You Get What You Want
So much of our lives are focused on getting what we want, whether it is a specific job, a specific partner, or even just a leather jacket. But what happens after we get what we want? Then what? And more importantly, what do we do when what we have wanted ends up not serving our purposes or just isn’t right?
The shock after getting what you want and finding its not right for you can be profound. You can feel foolish, guilty, angry, confused, and shaken about your ability to choose what is right for you.
But after the initial feelings wear off, one question remains: knowing something you wanted isn’t working/right for you, what do you do with it?
There are several options: You can try to make it work, you can ignore it, or you can let it go with gratitude.
These are the thoughts that I went through when I realized that the jacket just wasn’t ever going to work. I could try to make it work in my outfits and hope no one noticed that it didn’t fit right, I could throw the jacket in the back of my closet and ignore it, or I could return it.
Letting Go of Things that Don’t Serve You
Options 1 and 2 were tempting for the simple fact that I wasn’t ready to admit that something I had wanted wasn’t right for me. I figured the universe has given me exactly what I wanted, how can I spit in the face of that by getting rid of it?
While wearing it might not be a feasible option, at least I could keep it in the back of my closet as a kind of Law of Attraction relic, something tangible I could turn to for continue proof that it does work. And who knows, maybe someday I could fit into it…right?
How many times have you had feelings like this about something in your own life? You get that job, you marry that partner, you buy that fancy car…only to discover after the fact that for whatever reason, it doesn’t serve you in a productive and valuable way. It just doesn’t fit.
Yet I am willing to bet that instead of letting go of that wanted-thing, you held onto it for a number of reasons, thinking you could make it work, adjust to it and be happy with it, or ignore it and just move on with your life (and this additional baggage).
Letting go of things you wanted but don’t serve you is a hard thing to do. It feels like admitting failure or defeat, it feels shameful and ungrateful. Yet at the end of the day, the only real way to honor something you wanted that doesn’t serve you is to let it go with gratitude.
Be grateful that you were able to get what you wanted, but also be grateful for the fact that you learned that the wanted item did not fit. And by letting things go that do not fit you, you free them up to be taken by people for whom they would be a perfect fulfillment of their dreams.
After wearing the jacket around my home for several minutes, I came to terms with the fact that the only thing I could do – the only right thing I could do – would be to return the jacket. I carefully packed it back in its box, sealed it up, and with a smile returned it to the company with the hope that – while it didn’t serve me – it would be the perfect fit for someone else. And no matter what, that chapter of wanting was concluded, and there was something freeing about that. The sad story of the jacket is actually now in my mind a positive story about how to gratefully let go.
What are your thoughts about letting go of things that don’t serve you?
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Here’s to your Uncommon Life,
