Right from birth, to this day, we all have been through a lot of things in life. There are places we’ve seen, things we’ve used, people we’ve met, and experiences that we’ve gone through. All of us were born in different circumstances, therefore not everyone was born with a silver spoon in their mouth.

Different people use different ways to get what they want from life. There is an infinite number of combinations of strategies one can deploy to move ahead in a direction they strive to go. But one thing is for sure. The good choices that you make in your life to make a dent in the world, will without a doubt give you the fruits of your labor. But not without a cost.

As you pursue your vision in life, along the way you might have to give up some of the things that belonged to you. But here is the thing. Most people are too afraid to let go of what they have.

The most predominant obstacle holding people back from taking action is the fear of loss. People are loss averse. We’re more afraid of losing something than being motivated about gaining something. If there was a bet where there was a chance of either losing 50 bucks or gaining 100 bucks, most people would not take the risk.

Here are 3 things that people do because of their loss aversion:

Holding on to Wealth

This is probably a no-brainer as we have all seen wealthy people stress about how they might lose their wealth if they act a certain controversial way.

Although personally, I’ve never held too much value to money, only when the situation arises do our character comes into play. As the saying goes, “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power“, and powerful people usually have a lot of money.

Holding on to Status

Most celebrities agree to go with the opinion of the majority, which is also the politically correct opinion, just in order to maintain their high status.

Being high status isn’t the wrong I’m talking about here, but the compromise on one’s principles one makes to hold on to that. The greatest regret in life for any man would be, not having done what he really wanted to do all his life. By living a compromised life, that’s exactly what will happen.

Holding on to Relationships

This is probably the most important aspect and something that I can relate to personally. I’ve been clingy and possessive before in life which caused me a lot of pain in the ass. People generally don’t like people who are clingy. Being independent and being happy alone is a trait that attracts people.

You will have to be ready to let go of people. It might be friends, family or your girlfriend. If people want to get out of your life, then you will have to let them go. And why would you want to be with someone who doesn’t want to be with you in the first place?

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I know that I’m making an abrupt end to this post. This is surely not one of my best posts with either good articulation or perfect flow. But the important thing that I as the author, and you as the reader have to understand, is that we all could lose everything. People who liked my work before may turnaround and hate it. The status that I earned as being a good writer can suddenly collapse and hit the dust, and there is nothing that I can do about it. Nothing is permanent, so the solution is to be ready to lose everything.