Ready to level up your life? Whether you’re aiming for a major career shift, better health, or profound personal success, the biggest hurdle often isn’t acquiring new skills—it’s cutting ties with the old you. The uncomfortable truth is that the beliefs, feelings, and habits that got you “here” won’t get you “there.” If you feel stuck, find yourself self-sabotaging, or are struggling to maintain a better life, you may be holding onto an outdated mindset that no longer serves your future. In this post, we explore why cutting ties with those “old versions” is essential for breakthrough success, and give you the steps to identify the fears, doubts, and insecurities—the “old baggage”—you need to leave behind to step into your next, greater chapter.
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Want A Better Life? Cut Ties With Old Versions Of You
I am so glad you are here. One of the things that I have been talking with clients about this week, nonstop in a bunch of different scenarios, is how sometimes when we want to go to the next level, we want to accomplish something really important to us. The skill sets, the beliefs, the feelings that we had that got us here will not get us there. It is almost like we have to break up with an old version of ourselves to become this new version of us that can have this new life.
What I have seen is the people who do not do it have a much harder time getting to the new thing that they want, or they get the new thing they want, and then they self-sabotage. They do not even want it anymore, or they do want it, but they push it away. I will give you some examples. When I first left corporate, I had had a high seven-figure earning year. I was in a really great place, but I knew I wanted to do something totally different. I wanted to start my own company and help people.
When we want to reach the next level or achieve something meaningful, the skills, beliefs, and feelings that got us here won’t get us there. It’s like we have to break up with an old version of ourselves to step into a new one that can create a… Share on XThat does not mean that I was not terrified, that I did not still have such an employee mindset, that I did not think that I knew everything I needed to know to get started, which is never true. One of the things that I brought with me that really worked against me is in corporate, I always thought that as long as I outworked everyone, I would be successful no matter what. It was very easy for me to put in 60 or even 80 hour weeks because I thought that was what got me ahead.
Letting Go Of The Old Mindset Of Trading Time For Money
The problem is when you become an entrepreneur, if you are one or you know one, you do not have a job, you have every job, so you could work yourself to absolute death and still accomplish nothing. I had to let go of that old mindset of the money I earned and the people I helped was going to directly be in correlation with how many hours I worked. I had to leave that part of me behind.
I also had to leave the part of me behind that thought that the way I made money was to make money for, forgive me guys, old white guys, because that is who I had worked for most of my career. I cannot see abundance and money coming directly to me. I had to leave that part of me behind so that I could really do what I wanted to do in my business, enjoy it and make more money. This was not a smooth and easy transition because initially I partnered with a bunch of different people, so I worked really hard and they made a lot of money.
Pack your old baggage into a suitcase, leave it behind, and don’t carry it into your next destination. Share on XI made a little money and I thought, “I am doing this the wrong way.” I realized after messing up a few times that there was an old part of me that I had to cut ties with. I want you to think about that. Whatever area of your life it is that you are looking to go to the next level, what are the habits that got you to here that may not serve you well in this new place? I want you to imagine that person that you who has the thing that you want, whatever it is, whether it is a job, it is a relationship, it is a health, a trip, whatever it is, what does that version of you have?
Comparing Your Current Self To The New Version Of You
What are their characteristics? What are the feelings they are feeling? What are their beliefs? I want you to compare those to yours today. You can even write this down, do a little stick figure man and ask which each one of them have. Even more importantly, what do they not have? I bet what you are going to see is the new version of you in the new life does not have some of the fears that you have, some of the doubts, some of the insecurities. Some of us can identify this for ourselves. We can get that objective, but most of us, myself included, sometimes need someone else that we trust to point these out for us. What are the things that this person in this life with this achievement would not have?
What would they have let go of? When someone that you trust shares those things with you, I want you to think about how you reformulate your habits and patterns so you can cut those ties and let go of that old version of yourself. Whether it is trading your time for money or it is deciding that whatever you want to do in the moment is more important than your goal. Maybe it is something as silly as I do not do things that scare me.
In order to get to this place, I am going to become someone who is not afraid of things that scare me. In my case, who is afraid of things that scare me, but do it anyway. Find that gap. Find the things that you want to pack up in a suitcase full of your old baggage and leave it somewhere. Do not take it with you to this new destination. While this sounds overly simple, this will make a huge difference for you because what got us here will not get us there. Sometimes it is not that we need new skills, new behaviors, new beliefs. It is that we need to let go of some of those that were not serving us. Here’s to your success.
