So, a few weeks back, I ended up playing this goofy little “fortune telling game” with some friends. It wasn’t anything super serious, just one of those online things, you know? You click a button, and it spits out some random phrase or a weird symbol. We were just messing around, having a laugh.
My turn came, and I clicked. Up popped this short sentence, plain as day. It said: “The key is in letting go.“
Honestly? My first thought was, “Huh? What kind of vague, hippie-dippy nonsense is that?” It sounded like something you’d read on a motivational poster that’s seen better days. I just shrugged it off, had another laugh with my buddies, and we moved on to the next silly thing.
But then, a couple of days later, this phrase just kinda… kept popping into my head. I was dealing with a really frustrating situation at work, a project that just wouldn’t budge. I was stuck. And I mean really stuck. I’d been banging my head against this one particular problem for days, trying every single angle I could think of, and getting absolutely nowhere. I was getting stressed, irritable, and just feeling totally blocked.
That’s when “The key is in letting go” kind of whispered to me. I rolled my eyes internally. “Oh, great,” I thought, “now I’m taking advice from a digital fortune cookie.” But I was so desperate, I figured, what’s the harm in giving it a try? It couldn’t make things any worse, right?
My Journey with “Letting Go” and My Stubborn Project
So, the project. It was about optimizing a legacy system, making it faster and more efficient. One specific module was just a nightmare. Every time I touched it, something else broke. I was so focused on fixing this specific piece in this specific way, because that’s how it “should” be fixed according to the docs I found.
I decided to try “letting go.” How do you even do that with code? My first step was pretty simple, but hard for me to do. I literally just closed my laptop. Not minimized, not logged out, just shut the lid. And I walked away. I went and made a cup of coffee, then went outside for fifteen minutes and just stared at the sky. No phone, no music, just… nothing.
When I came back, I still didn’t open the laptop immediately. I just sat there for a bit, kinda clearing my head. Then, when I did open it, I made a conscious decision: I wouldn’t touch that specific problem module for the rest of the day. I would “let go” of trying to fix it right then.
Instead, I started working on a completely different part of the system, something much simpler, something I actually enjoyed. I opened a different file, started writing new code, and just let myself flow with it. It felt weirdly rebellious, like I was ignoring my responsibilities. But I stuck with it.
The next morning, I woke up, and you know what? The first thing I thought about wasn’t the new code I wrote. It was that stubborn module. And suddenly, almost out of nowhere, a completely different approach flashed into my head. It wasn’t in the old docs. It wasn’t the “standard” way. It was a bit unconventional, but it felt… right.
I rushed to the computer, opened up the module, and started trying this new idea. Instead of forcing the old logic, I started to refactor, pulling things apart and rebuilding them with this new perspective. It wasn’t about perfection anymore; it was about finding a solution that worked, even if it looked different from what I originally envisioned.
And guess what? It worked. Like, really worked. It wasn’t perfect, nothing ever is, but it stabilized the system, sped things up, and didn’t break anything else. I was floored. All that struggle, all that frustration, and the solution came when I just… stepped back and let go.
What I Learned, Plain and Simple
It sounds almost silly, like a magical fix, but it really wasn’t. That dumb little phrase from the fortune game just nudged me to actually try a different way of thinking and working. It wasn’t some profound spiritual awakening; it was just a practical shift.
I started to understand what “letting go” actually meant for me in a day-to-day sense, especially with challenging stuff:
- It means letting go of the need for things to be perfect right away. Sometimes, good enough is what you need to move forward.
- It means letting go of the single path you’re fixated on. There’s almost always more than one way to get somewhere.
- It means letting go of the tight grip you have on a problem. Step back. Breathe. Give your brain a chance to connect dots without the pressure.
- It means letting go of the frustration when you’re stuck. That emotional baggage just clouds your judgment.
This happened again a few times since then, in smaller ways. Like when I was trying to fix a wobbly chair at home, and I was twisting a screw so hard I nearly stripped it. I walked away, took a break, and when I came back, I just naturally saw a better angle, a different tool, and it worked in seconds. Or when I was writing something and just couldn’t find the right words; I’d step away, think about something else, and the words would just flow when I returned.
It taught me that sometimes, when you’re pushing too hard, you’re actually pushing the solution further away. It’s not about giving up or being lazy. It’s about being smart about how you apply your effort, knowing when to put your foot down and when to take it off the gas.
So yeah, that silly “fortune telling game” and its vague little phrase actually made a real difference in how I approach tricky situations. I don’t always remember it, but when I do, it almost always helps me find a way through. It’s like sometimes you just gotta let the problem breathe, let yourself breathe, and then, often enough, the answer just shows up when you’re not gripping it so tight.
