What Are You Willing to Give Up to Change Your Life

If you want to level up your life and make big changes, you have to be willing to give up and sacrifice some things to make space for the new.

You can’t just keep adding new things to your life and expect yourself to be able to juggle it all. And it’s not just your schedule that has limits. You have to make sure that there aren’t too many things in your mind either so that you can fully focus on what really matters and what will help you to grow.

Giving up things that don’t serve you anymore of course isn’t just about making space for new things. It’s also about transitioning to a more positive and fulfilling life by letting go of things that give you a bad feeling or that hold you back.

So you need to know: what are you willing to give up?

Why it’s important to give up things

You can’t start a new life without leaving the old one behind. You can’t build a multimillion-dollar business if you stay in your mediocre job. You can’t make money if you don’t spend money. You can’t meet the best people in your life unless you actually let go of your fear and go and meet them. You can’t be yourself if you don’t risk being not liked.

As you can see, whatever you want to do to get to the next level in life, you have to give up something in order to get it.

If you hold on to limiting beliefs or old habits that hold you back, you’re making it very hard (if not impossible) for yourself to become the person you truly want to be and get the life you really want.

1. Comfort zone

We as humans crave comfort and do our best to always feel good and happy. Comfort is one of our biggest goals in life, whether it means physical comfort or freedom from bad feelings.

While this is very natural, the search for comfort can easily hinder your growth.

You want to become a writer, but to write you’d have to endure feelings of uncertainty and keep pushing yourself forward even when you don’t feel like writing, so it’s easier to just do something else.

Or maybe you want to get fit and you plan to start running and going to the gym. But that would require you to be physically uncomfortable, so you opt to watch Netflix instead.

To get forward in life, the first thing you need to learn is that growth requires you to be uncomfortable from time to time. You have to give up your constant longing for comfort. This will get easier with time, but it’s you who needs to step into the discomfort zone.

2. Fear

Most people who have a hard time going after their dreams are stagnant with fear. You may not even notice it yourself because fear often masks itself as something else. You might for example tell yourself that you have to be realistic and choose a conventional career or that it’s too early to take the leap to something new.

But this is fear talking. You need to give up on letting fear guide your choices and choose to have courage to do things even when the outcome isn’t certain. Maybe moving abroad or starting your own business is scary. But chances are that you are capable of much more than you even realize.

And you definitely don’t have to have it all figured out from the beginning! Just get started and you will get better every day.

3. Shyness

This is a tricky one, I know from experience. While there is nothing inherently wrong with being shy, it does hold you back and make your life much harder than it needs to be.

Shyness can discourage you from reaching out to people, going to events, or putting yourself out there. All of these things could help you tremendously on your way to a better life.

The good news is that shyness is something you can overcome (and often that happens automatically as we grow older). Challenge yourself to give up the security of your comfort zone and put yourself in situations where you simply have to forget about being shy.

4. Old job

You might have heard of golden handcuffs. That is a situation where your job doesn’t make you happy but you feel like it pays too well for you to quit.

Many people feel trapped in a mediocre job because they feel like they can’t make ends meet any other way or they don’t believe they can get any other job at all.

We are constantly bombarded with information about how tough the job market is and how expensive everything is becoming – it’s hard not to be stressed!

But if you have bigger plans for yourself than your current job, you have to be willing to let go of the comfort of the regular paychecks and have the courage to take a risk or two to get to the next level.

Keep in mind that staying in the same job is also a risk: what if you were fired or lost a chance on your dream job because you decided to stay in the same job?

5. Career that doesn’t take you anywhere

Sometimes the job itself isn’t the only problem. You might feel like the whole field is simply not right for you or that your career isn’t going to lead you to the kind of life you want to live.

In this case, it’s important that you don’t simply succumb to the pressure of sticking to a normal, secure job because you feel like that’s what is expected from you.

You only have one life and you have to make it count. If your career isn’t the right match for you, have the courage to give it up and look for something better.

6. Old friends

Who you surround yourself with matters. If you have ambitious, driven friends who support you and are there when you need them, you are much more likely to get to where you want to be.

At the same time, hanging on to people who don’t have similar ambitions or who don’t really even understand your dreams can hold you back even without meaning to.

I’m not saying all of your friends need to be the same as you. But if you feel like your old friends live completely different lives than you and you don’t feel happy around them anymore, you might want to consider moving on.

7. Family’s approval

Most of us strive to make our family proud or at least hope that we are accepted for who we are. This is natural, but at the same time, it can keep you from going after the things that would be right for you, simply because you think your parents or friends don’t approve of your choices.

Of course, sometimes you know very well that they don’t approve of your ideas and dreams. But it could also be that you’re holding yourself back for nothing: maybe you only assume that they are against your slightly unconventional plans when in reality they would get on board in no time.

Whatever your situation is, you can’t let other people rule your life. This is your life and you’re the only one who gets to say what career you choose or what risks you decide to take. So stop looking for your family’s approval and dare to go after your craziest dreams.

8. Home town or country

Some people want to travel the world, while others want to stay put. If you happen to be perfectly happy right where you grew up, that’s great.

But if you feel like you don’t belong in your home town or home country, you definitely should look for a place that really feels like home!

The same applies if it’s not possible to make your dreams come true where you came from. If you feel like there’s something better out there, go after it.

9. Money

Financial security is important, but you shouldn’t let it dictate your life. Too many people are afraid to quit jobs they don’t like simply because they pay well (or even worse, jobs that pay badly).

There are times when you have to work any job you can find to make ends meet. There is nothing wrong with that. But you shouldn’t let yourself get sucked into a mediocre career that doesn’t feel right for you just because you can make some money out of it.

If you know what you want to do and the only obstacle is money, find a way around it. There are plenty of ways to make more money or to cut some corners. If you for example want to spend a year traveling the world, but are afraid that losing a year’s salary is stupid or that it will affect your pension negatively, you just need to find a way to make it work.

You can’t give up your life simply to have a few extra thousand in your bank account.

10. Skills

Sounds weird that I think you should give up some skills, right?

Well, I don’t mean that you should somehow remove the skills you have from your brain (if that was even possible).

Instead, I’m talking about the skills you have been thinking about learning or possibly even ones that you have started to learn already.

Why? Because everything you put your time into has an opportunity cost. If you try to be a jack of all trades, you can’t become good at anything difficult that takes a lot of time and effort to master. And these tend to be the things that really matter.

If you are an artist who tries a new medium every other week, you’ll produce a lot of mediocre art. But if you dedicate all your time to sculpting, you can one day be an excellent sculptor.

That’s why you have to give up learning skills that you don’t necessarily need.

As you can see, there are many things that might hold you back and prevent you from making your dreams come true. But you can’t let them stop you.

Ask yourself what you are willing to give up for your dreams and then take action.

What are your biggest challenges or things that you feel are holding you back? What do you think you could do to overcome those challenges?

Another thing you can do today to change your life is to do a life audit! It helps you figure out what you’re doing well and what you should change.