Let go. be. — The Pause That Changed Everything

You don’t find peace by fixing your life.
You find it by creating space inside the chaos.

For me, that space started with three little words, let go. be.

I didn’t get here on a winning streak.
My alcoholism took me through the trenches, and climbing out wasn’t pretty.

I used to react to everything, every fear, every disappointment, every voice that told me I wasn’t enough. Even before I ever picked up a drink, I didn’t know how to pause. I didn’t know how to just be.

But I’ll never forget the day that changed everything.
I was six months sober. Three dogs in the car. Heading north.

About an hour into the drive, anxiety hit. My chest tightened, my thoughts were racing, the bills, the regrets, everything I couldn’t fix. And then came that familiar urge to drink. I didn’t want to feel what I was feeling. I just wanted silence.

Then I looked up and saw my dogs. Calm. Trusting. Waiting.
And something in me whispered, just hang on.

Somewhere between fear and faith, I heard it.
Let go. be.

Three words that hit me like a lightning bolt.
They told me to let go of everything I couldn’t control, the people, the past, the situations that weren’t mine to fix.
They told me to stop gripping life so tight that I was choking it.

And to be.
To be right here, right now.

That be, that pause, became the doorway to everything that came next.

Because in that pause, that space between reaction and response, that’s where the answers live.

When I finally learned to let go and just be, something shifted.
That pause gave me space to ask better questions.
Not about the world, but about me.

What part do I play in this?
Is my thinking in the right place?
Are my actions leading me toward the person I want to become?

When I started asking those questions, I stopped living on autopilot.
I stopped reacting to everything around me and started responding from peace.

Let go. be. gave me something I never had before, a pause.
The kind of pause that comes before every truth, every decision, every next right action.

Because before you can do the GRIT work, you have to create space for it.

Let go. be. is the pause.
GRIT is the practice.
Together, they keep me grounded no matter what’s happening around me.

GRIT became my daily check-up from the neck-up.
Not a system or a quick fix, but a way to live.
A way to come back to center when life gets messy.

Growth. Resilience. Integrity. Tenacity.
Four words that help me realign every time I drift.

When I practice GRIT, I build awareness, I start to see my own patterns and how I’m showing up.
I build alignment, my thoughts, words, and actions begin to match.
And I build accountability, I stop waiting for someone else to change and take ownership of what’s mine.

That’s what GRIT creates. Awareness, alignment, accountability.
It’s where the pause becomes progress.
Where peace meets power.
Where strength is born, not because life got easier, but because I got steadier.

When you live this way long enough, something changes.
You stop chasing.
You stop fighting for control.
You stop needing life to look a certain way to feel okay.

Because peace doesn’t come from things falling into place.
It comes from you falling into alignment.

And when that happens, life stops feeling like something you have to survive and starts feeling like something you get to live.

Every time life knocks you off center, you’ve got a way home.

Let go. be.

Reflection:
When was the last time you paused long enough to listen before reacting?
What might change if you gave yourself the space to just be?

When life knocks you off center, you don’t need a plan — you need a pause.
Practice your own Let go. be. moment through the free 5-Day GRIT Challenge and Unshakable Grit book.