You can't grow without saying goodbye

It's Ted and Ixi here, and today we had lunch with a fantastic new friend.

We feel lucky to have encountered so many top performers in various fields, and this woman is no exception - she's a creative head at a super-big corporation who has as she put it, earned a salary in five different countries. She went from doing in-the-trenches creative design to being at the heart of the company as the global director of branding.  

We talked about career paths, and at one point we asked her if she missed her hands-on creative work now that she works in management:

"Of course! But that loss is part of growth."

You don't have to be considering major career shifts, or even stepping very far outside your comfort zone to experience that sense of loss.

In the book "Leadership on the Line", Ronald Heifetz and Marty Linsky put it this way:

"Habits, values, and attitudes, even dysfunctional ones, are part of one's identity. To change the way people see and do things is to challenge how they define themselves."

When your college teacher tells you that you're not playing in tune, but you're using the fingering you got from your high school teacher, you might be being asked to give up something that is part of your identity.

You might find yourself deciding (like Ted's college roommate) that music really isn't what you thought it would be, and you want to be a doctor. Even though you are acting in genuine alignment with your values and know that you're making the right choice, you are giving up something that guided you through years of your life, and thousands of hours of work, and that was driven by a genuine love of the art: 

you are giving up something that has been essential, and you will experience loss.

You cannot grow without changing, you cannot improve without growing, and you cannot grow without experiencing loss. 

• Be glad for what came before, for it has led you to now
• Be glad for what's around the corner, and you can only do this by being open to what's next
• Say so long to old versions of yourself and what no longer serves you
• Saying goodbye means that the new has room to come in
• Good goodbyes honor your lived experiences and is rooted in gratefulness

Is there something you've recently said goodbye to?  An old habit, a favorite mouthpiece or bow? 

What are you making room for next?

We wish you patience and clarity as you navigate life's inevitable moments of “goodbye”!