Header Photo by Thomas Young | Words by Sinclair Ceasar
🎧 Audio version of today’s newsletter.
They don’t want you.
They’re not going after you. They never call you first, email you back, text to see how you are.
At this point, they’re probably ghosting you, but you’re thirsty and hungry for their attention and validation. They know this. Maybe they don’t.
Either way, you’re not a priority for them, but you keep going after them. It’s not healthy. You need to let them go.
If you keep holding on, you’ll miss out on all the people right there in your life who actually want you and want to give you love. You’ll miss out on yourself and all the things you’d be sacrificing if you and this person actually did life together, business together, creativity together, making a family together.
You’re willing to compromise your values just to be with them. You know you shouldn’t, but you ignore your truest voice.
You’d rather partner with fear instead.
Dear reader, I gotta tell you, it’s time to stop chasing people who don’t want you. People who’d bring all that’s toxic into your life. People who won’t give to you how you’d give to them. People who are clearly disinterested in who you are and what you bring.
I know this because I’ve been that chaser so many times in my life. I’ve gone after the people who only want to cause me harm. I’ve gone after people who were only meant to be in my life for a brief season.
Everyone isn’t meant to stick around forever. Some people come into our lives for the job, the date, the money, the laughs, or the trip, and then they leave.
I’ve feared that letting go means losing something I’ll never ever get back: someone who loves me, someone who sees me, someone who wants to create with me. I have attachment and detachment issues. I fear being alone. I’m uncomfortable with too much silence.
Mostly though, I fear that letting go of people means that something is wrong with me. But that’s not true.
Letting go of someone could be the breakthrough you’ve been needing to give to yourself.
It could mean you seizing an opportunity you wouldn’t have otherwise. It could be making space for the people, the healthy habits, the practices, and the love that would actually light up your life.
But, you won’t get any of that if you’re fixated on everything and everyone that doesn’t want you.
Make the shift.
It’s taken years, but I’ve made the shift through deep work with therapists, close friends, my wife, God, and myself. Today, I’m fortunate and thankful to have the relationships I didn’t have growing up. I’m no longer sticking with people who brought violence and pain and humiliation into my life.
Sometimes, I see myself starting to chase others, but then I think: Do I have the love I need?
I do.
How to begin shifting your own narrative.
Check those stories you’re telling yourself.
Ask yourself:
- What am I afraid of losing if I let them go?
- Why do I keep going after people who never go after me?
- What would happen if I focused on what I love, instead of on who could love me?
- How am I grounded in the relationships I already have?
- What’s the loving choice in all this? What’s the fear filled decision?
Sit with the real answers that arise. Write them down. Talk them out with someone you trust. Talk them out with me, you know I’m here.
But, don’t retreat when painful realizations show themselves. We often avoid the truth because it’s hard to digest. Then, we spend years of our lives suffering, because we chose to act from a deficit, rather than make decisions that align with our values.
Who do you need to stop chasing? What’s your next move with this? Whatever it is, I encourage you to carry grace with you during this process. Go slow with it. Go easy on yourself. It doesn’t need to happen today.
I hope you get to a point where you can say: I’ve let go of at least one relationship that was draining me. I was doing all the work, and they weren’t willing to. I’m glad I chose me.
Choose you, my friend.
