The Psychology of Letting Go

Some time ago I drafted an essay on cutting words from essays, intended for a cheesy writing contest, and never submitted it. I was thinking about this essay, languishing on my hard drive, as I was packing out to move to a new city. It struck me: revising and de-cluttering are remarkably similar processes. And I solved them in the same way, without connecting either the problems or the solutions to each other. Deciding what to leave behind, and what to throw out, is psychologically painful. So is cutting words from something I’ve written, especially if I think they are good words, sentences, paragraphs. But bringing too much stuff makes life unpleasant, and may not even be possible. Same with all those words. (Same with, like, everything.) How to choose what comes with and what stays behind is the topic for another essay. This essay isn’t about what to let go of, it’s about how I trick myself into being okay with letting go of the words I already know are the ones to cut, and leave…

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