One of Lynnda and my favorite attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World is For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration. Two “Royal Historians” tell the Frozen story. All the main characters are there live. The audience follows those on stage and sings songs from the movie Frozen. The high point is when everyone sings Let it Go made famous by Idina Menzel and snowflakes fall from the ceiling. The kids love it.

Queen Elsa lets go of her past to move forward. She was controlled by her fears like many of us. Fear can keep us from starting a business, acting on an idea or asking for a date like I did in high school. We can be afraid of taking on a leadership role or a new job because we are afraid we will fail. My most relatable part of Let it Go is; “It’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small and the fears that once controlled me can’t get to me at all. It’s time to see what I can do. To test the limits and break through.” “No rules for me. I’m free. Let it go. Let it go.” “The past is in the past.” “Let it go. Let it go.”

We can allow our fears of repeating past failures hold us back from an incredible future. One way to overcome our fears is to focus on our dream or the goal we want so badly that we are willing to do the thing we fear. I learned at a young age selling Little League Baseball candy that if I wanted the reward (I can’t even recall now what it was), I would need to knock on a lot of doors and ask people to buy candy. I learned everyone wouldn’t buy. I heard a lot of “No”. Then I discovered if knocked on enough doors and asked people to buy I would hear a lot of “Yes”. Overcoming fear was important because I had the courage to ask Lynnda, my wife of now 40+ years out on our first date. Maybe it was the self-confidence I had developed that helped her to say “Yes”.

In our work at Shale Crescent USA we know everyone won’t come to our Region. We know if enough of the right people hear our message about the advantages of our Region some will say “Yes”. They will come to The Shale Crescent USA and bring high wage jobs. Some already have.

As much as we don’t like it, we will all experience failure. If we don’t have some failure our goals may be too low. We need to be challenged to grow. It is important to learn from failure and then “Let it go.” As a soccer coach I work with our goal keepers. They will get scored on. The most important thing for them to understand is to let go of what just happened, learn from it and focus on the future. We all have made mistakes or had failures we need to learn from and then let go of. We can’t change the past. We can change the future.

We all have a limited amount of time and money. Sometimes we need to let go of what is good to give us the time or funds for something better. We can find ways to generate additional funds to achieve our goals. What we can’t do is buy more time. We need to make the most of this limited resource.

This is a good time to set goals for next year. If 2022 is a great year for you what will have happened? What do you need to stop doing so you have the time to do what is most important to achieve your dreams? At Shale Crescent USA we have some major initiatives planned for 2022 and are going through this process. We are focused on helping manufacturers already here in the region to expand and create jobs by making products we are currently importing. Our challenge is letting them know the world has changed and why the USA now has fundamental economic and environmental advantages over the rest of the world in manufacturing.

The Holiday Season is a time for family, friends, love, goodwill, Peace on Earth and between people. How are your relationships? This is a good time to heal past hurts. Lynnda and I have relatives who haven’t spoken to each other in years. They blame each other for the hurt that happened long ago. Neither will take the first step to reconcile their differences. They haven’t chosen to let go of past hurts and forgive the other. Sadly, the children suffer most by never getting to know their relatives. If they were willing to forgive they may find, like the song, “It’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small.” Forgiving others and letting go helps us. It frees us so we can move forward and put past hurts behind us. The human mind can hold only one thought at a time. We need to keep ours positive.

We probably all know people who are estranged from family members or former friends. They may have even forgotten what the argument was about. Maybe we can help bring peace by encouraging them to let go and forgive so they can be free of past hurt and experience the full joys of this Christmas Season.

Letting go so we can move forward is important in business, our personal lives, our careers and our relationships. “It’s funny how some distance makes everything seem small.” Let the past stay in the past. Let it go. Let it go. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Safe Holiday Season.