Letting go and moving on isn’t easy whether the circumstance is a love relationship, past mistakes in our life, a job change or a job loss. When there is an emotional commitment and attachment to a person or situation, letting go and moving on brings about sadness, pain and/or heartbreak. I don’t know about you, but I don’t seek out sadness, pain or heartbreak and would prefer not to experience any of them.
Like you, I have experience in the whole letting go and moving on thing in love relationships, past mistakes, job changes and most recently a job loss. Do I excel at moving on since I’ve had these experiences?
No way!
Actually, it is comical to even think that the words “excel” and “me” would be in the same sentence that referred to coping with a loss and moving on with life. I’m assuming it is just my personality, but for whatever reason I really wrangle with these large changes in life. I’ve thought long and hard as to why I can’t just skip onto the next opportunity in my life. I have come to the conclusion it is because I don’t like to see things end. Who likes endings? In this way, I don’t think I’m that different from anyone else.
To dissect it a little further, part of the reason I don’t like endings is because I’m either happy with the circumstance and want to enjoy more of it or I’m unhappy with the circumstances and want to get it right so that I can be happy. The problem that exists in these two situations is that I can only control MYSELF and not the other people involved in a love relationship or job. Other people have free will, but their choices CAN and OFTEN do affect my life and feelings.
Let me give you an example of a personal experience. When Alyssa was young, I had a boyfriend who lived in another state. He was a police officer, so who better to be a boyfriend than someone who upholds the law and protects the people, right?
Wrong.
He cheated on me and lied about it when confronted. Actually he lied and lied and kept lying about it even though there was blatant proof that he cheated. Some of the women confronted me as if I was the one taking their man, but we were actually engaged. I didn’t IMMEDIATELY get out of the relationship. Instead, I listened to his apologies and promises which in the end turned out to just be more lies. Eventually, I ended the relationship, but it took me a long time to just let go and move on.
Why did it take me so long to move on with my life and just forget him?
The relationship felt unresolved because he never admitted to his lies and my dumb brain said stupid things like, “You obviously aren’t ‘good’ enough of a person or he wouldn’t have wanted to date other women behind your back.”
It wasn’t my fault that he couldn’t be loyal to the relationship that he had committed to be in. Years later, I received an email and phone call from him where he admitted his lies, apologized for not only disrespecting me, but also for hurting me. At that point, it had come full circle. I had already put it behind me, but some small part of me was glad that he had finally taken accountability of his actions and how they had affected me.
My point is that it took me awhile to let go and my sluggishness in doing so hurt me even more and deprived me of happiness that I deserved. Learning to let go and move on is vital because things change CONSTANTLY. The better we are at learning to cope with changes and move on, the more happiness we will experience and the more satisfied we will feel about our life experience.
30 Quotes About Letting Go And Moving On
I’ve put together 30 quotes about letting go of relationships and experiences that are holding you back from a happy life with accompanying advice about how to move on into the happiness of your dreams.
I couldn’t nail down all the the authors of the quotes, so I left them blank if I was unsure.
“You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are still full of yesterday’s junk.”
“A girl doesn’t need anyone who doesn’t need her.”
– Marilyn Monroe
“If your current relationship can’t let go of their ex, you need to make your current relationship your ex.”
– Sherry Riter
“We’re not friends. We’re not enemies. We’re just strangers with some memories.”
“Once you know the relationship isn’t going to last, let go and move on even though you know it is going to hurt.”
– Sherry Riter
“Never lose yourself while trying to hold on to someone who doesn’t care about losing you.”
“You can’t move on until you accept the loss and let go.”
– Sherry Riter
“You must make a decision that you are going to move on. It won’t happen automatically. You will have to rise up and say, ‘I don’t care how hard this is, I don’t care how disappointed I am, I’m not going to let this get the best of me. I’m moving on with my life.'”
– Joel Osteen
“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”
– Albert Einstein, letter to his son Eduard, 1930
“Best way to not get your heart broken is to pretend you don’t have one.”
– Charlie Sheen
“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened…or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the (Hell) on.”
– Tupac
“Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.”
– Les Brown
“Just because you miss someone doesn’t mean you need them back in your life. Missing is just a part of moving on.”
“If someone wants to be a part of your life, they will make an effort to be in it. So don’t bother reserving a space in your heart for someone who doesn’t make an effort to stay.”
“Moving on doesn’t mean you forget about things. It just means you have to accept what happened and continue living.”
“I learned that things change and people change. That doesn’t mean you forget the past or try to cover it up. It simply means that you move on and treasure the memories.”
“You were happy before. You will be happy after.”
“I’m glad that I found the ‘good’ in goodbye.”
“Don’t waste your time looking back at what you’ve lost. Move on. Life is not meant to be traveled backwards.”
“So here’s a piece of advice: Let go when you’re hurting too much. Give up when love isn’t enough and move on when things aren’t like before. It’s certain there’s someone out there who will love you even more.”
“Take all the time you need to heal emotionally. Moving on doesn’t take a day. It takes lots of little steps to be able to break free of your broken self.”
“Sometimes we just need to erase the texts, delete the phone numbers and move on!”
“Once you walk out of my life, the door locks behind you.”
“Relationships are like glass. Sometimes it’s better to leave them broken than try to hurt yourself putting it back together.”
“Moving on…it may not be an overnight process, but it always starts with acceptance. Time will heal you.”
“Sometimes someone has to hurt you deep enough just to let you know that they’re not the right one for you. Learn your lesson and move on…”
“Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.”
“Unless she’s all yours, she’s still his.”
“Unless he’s all yours, he’s still hers.”
“It’s true that we don’t know what we’ve got until we lose it. But it’s also true that we don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.”
Pretty awesome quotes, don’t you think? I’m trying to keep the last part of the last quote at the forefront of my mind…”We don’t know what we’ve been missing until it arrives.”
I can’t hardly wait for the happy missing part of my life to arrive.
Who among us has lived such an idyllic life that we haven’t experienced disappointments and loss? Disappointments and loss is part of the human experience. Circumstances change and suddenly we find our life has altered. It’s all about our attitude and how we choose to handle the latest emotional upset in our life that will dictate how we move on. And move on we must. Because yesterday is no more. What once was, no longer is. 🙂
And Joan, you left off one thing. Did you already forget?…Today Is The First Day Of the Rest Of Your Life 😉 😛