Letting Go to Win

You think you’re in control of your life, but you’re not.

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You’ve worked hard to achieve your goals. You’ve landed that big client, that dream job, that luxury car, and that beautiful home. You’ve done it all by yourself, right?

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Wrong.

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Everything is going your way right now because you’re in total control, or so you think.

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But what if I told you that you’re not in control of your life? What if I told you that there’s a hidden force behind your success that you might not be aware of? A force that can make or break your future. A force that you need to understand and harness if you want to keep winning.

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The Hidden Force Behind Your Success

I know you’ve heard the saying, “If you want anything done well, you must do it yourself.”

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But wait a minute. Let me ask you this.

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Do you think you got that big client because you were in total control? Do you think you got that new Toyota Landcruiser v8 because you had absolute control? Do you think you got that new job as the CEO or Country Manager of the business in Ghana because you’re so special? Or that new house in Cantonments, Accra, because you have total control?

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I mean, I’ll give it to you. You worked hard to achieve these things, no doubt.

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However, I’ll also argue that even with all the action you took, the results, i.e., your achievements, were also up to a higher power.

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You see, there’s a hidden force behind your success that you might not be aware of. A force that can make or break your future. A force that you need to understand and harness if you want to keep winning.

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What is this force? And how can you use it to your advantage?

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I don’t know what that higher power might be to you reading this, but for me, that higher power is God.

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A Personal Story of Letting Go

Let me share with you a personal story of how I learned to let go of control and trust in God.

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In December 2021, I was going into a vehicle lease contract with a multinational company. I was in competition with three other vendors who were offering similar services.

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Control freak Chris always wanted to know where I was in the sale, a.k.a. being in control.

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There is such a thing as overselling, and I was doing just that, not knowing I was really just pushing myself out of this deal.

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The more I followed up (called and emailed), the less credibility I had in the client’s mind. I’m pretty sure they were wondering why I was so involved and if I was compensating for something I was lacking.

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The feedback from the client was that their office in Germany was looking at all offers made and would be making the final decision.

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This definitely wasn’t the kind of response I was expecting. I mean, they have a Country Manager in Ghana for a reason. In my mind, this deal was directly in his purview.

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Of course, this was a holding response. The type you give to someone you don’t want to hurt their feelings while making it seem like someone else is in charge when, in fact, you’re in charge.

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I’m not clairvoyant, but I could feel the deal slipping from my hands for some reason.

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And it wasn’t anything in particular that I could place my fingers on.

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The energy around the whole thing just wasn’t right.

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I’ve been here several times before, and it usually precedes a loss or failure.

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At this point, I decided to totally let go.

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My mindset was, “If it was truly going to be mine, I wouldn’t lose it. I have put my best foot forward, and I knew I would take better care of the client compared to my competitors.”

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I stopped praying about it.

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I stopped trying to control anything surrounding this deal.

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I stopped giving it any more of my energy and focused on other deals.

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A week later, I got a call from the Country Manager asking me if the offer I put forward was my best and final.

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Of course, it was. I took my time to come up with that offer. It was a fair and competitive price for a high-quality service.

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My response was, "Yes, sir, it is.”

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His response was, “Alright, we will get back to you.”

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And four days later, they got back to me, telling me that my offer was accepted.

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I was overjoyed and grateful. I thanked God for His favor and guidance. I realized that He was in control all along and that He had a better plan for me than I had for myself.

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I have so many stories similar to this; albeit, in many of them, prospects that didn’t go with me came back around a year or two later after choosing some other competitor.

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The Cupcake Story

This is really how you win: by letting go completely after you have put your best foot forward. And by letting go, I don’t just mean you not calling or texting them.

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It means you take your mind and energy completely off the results.

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Let me share with you a story I read about a grandmother’s baking that was just perfect.

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One day, the son pops into the kitchen and sees a couple of her cupcakes in the oven. He yells out to her, warning that the cupcakes will burn.

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After 30 minutes in the oven, he believed the cake was already baked just by looking at it.

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His mother, with her 50+ years of experience baking cakes, told him it wasn’t ready, and it still had about 20 more minutes to stay in the oven.

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Of course, he refutes that, and he proceeds to take one cupcake out of the oven. To his consternation, the cake was brown and hard on the exterior but still very mushy on the inside, making the cupcake inedible.

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His mother didn’t need to babysit the cupcakes. She knew the right temperature to bake the cake. She knew that at that temperature, it was going to take exactly 50 minutes to bake the cupcakes.

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The thing is, a lot of times we want to babysit everything, and we get frustrated with the initial results, but really, what we should be doing is letting go completely after we have checked all the boxes.

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The Illusion of Control

The control we are so badly looking to have is only ever an illusion.

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Most business plans never go according to plan, and that’s a fact.

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I’m not saying planning is a total waste of time, because it isn’t.

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Of course, you should plan. The very act of planning gears you up for success, not necessarily the plan itself.

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I cannot imagine a UFC fighter going into the ring without training or having a game plan for his opponent. A fighter who lacks training or a game plan should prepare to be finished in under one minute.

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But once you have rolled out your plan, it is time to let go and wait patiently for your results. In some cases, the wait may be 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, or even 10 years.

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The Power of Letting Go

In that period, the more anxiety, doubt, and fear you have concerning that matter, the more negative energy or vibrations are sent to it, and it’s guaranteed that things will go wrong.

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In the Bible, Peter asked Jesus to bid him to walk towards him on water, and Jesus said to Peter, “Come.” Peter proceeds to walk on water until he is afraid of the storm, and then he starts to sink.

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Everything is in equilibrium until you start having fears and doubts. That itself is a message to the universe that you’re not worthy.

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The universe records your negative energy, leading to a pattern of failure in your results.

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Imagine if you boarded a plane from Accra to London and your pilot, with his 20 years of experience flying, suddenly became afraid to fly.

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What do you think will happen on that journey? Your guess is as good as mine.

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I implore you to let go completely and watch the universe work in your favor.

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“When you let go, you create space for better things to enter your life.” - Unknown

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The Balance of Action and Surrender

Now, this doesn’t mean you should be passive either. Of course, you must be aggressive and assertive with your ambitions and goals. Which means go out there and make the best offer you can put together that will be mutually beneficial to you and your clients.

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But once you’ve done that, it is time to let go. You have stated your intentions clearly, and you don’t give a d*mn about the results. You know deep inside you that no one deal will make or break you.

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Although you’re doing this in accordance with your values and principles, which make you completely unapologetic about who you are and where you stand,.

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“The key to success is action, and the essential in action is perseverance.” - Sun Yat-sen

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Here are some key takeaways from this blog post:

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Control is an illusion. You can only control your actions, not the outcomes.

Letting go is a powerful way to attract success. You release resistance and allow the universe to work in your favor.

Action and surrender are two sides of the same coin. You need both to achieve your goals and dreams.

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This is Christopher Njokanma, signing off.

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Every week, I stay committed to providing value for you. Remember, my daring reader, to Like, Comment, and Share this article, for it might be the boost someone needs to remain persistent. Stay tuned for more awe-inspiring insights and discoveries in the captivating world of unconventional success.

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Christopher is the President @ Cloud 98 - We power your brand's growth by harmonizing content and conversion.