There comes a time in every young person’s life when things start to move fast, and you begin to outgrow the things you are used to. You outgrow your car seat when you are little, your favorite pair of shoes throughout your adolescence and your most comfy pair of pants all throughout your lifetime.

You will outgrow other areas of your life as well, including aspects that will begin to prove unnecessary to hold onto. These aspects, such as jobs, friends and homes, are things that you’ll inevitably grow out of, but the growth taking place is not always a loss. Most times, the hole just leaves room for improvement.

Not everything you lose is a loss. At times, going through periods of change in your life, whether big or small, can be a hurdle to get over. However, when life throws these obstacles your way, it is up to you to choose how to respond to them.

If you’re ready to quit your job and you don’t have a good reason to stay, go ahead and quit. There is no sense in working for minimum wage doing something you hate. You can pick yourself up, start over and learn to hate another minimum wage job. Or, better yet, if you get fired from your favorite job, it is not the end of the world.

Again, pick yourself up and move forward. You’ll be OK.

As they say, if you aren’t losing friends, you aren’t growing up. Friends are going to walk in and out of your life, and if you constantly have the same set of them, you might be doing something wrong. It’s important to understand when a person no longer serves your growth and happiness.

If you have toxic people in your life, it’s OK to cut them out of it. If a toxic friend walks out of your life, it is OK to let them go. It might not be easy or fun, but you’ll feel a thousand times lighter once it’s over with.

It can be difficult to let go of the things around you that are no longer serving you. What’s even more difficult is judging what in your life provides you with support and the opportunity to grow upward. If something present in your life is not doing just that, you have every right to give it up. If you believe it’ll better serve you by being away from the person you are trying to become, then let it go. You have every right to choose the option that seems like it will best serve you.

You have the choice to build your life the way you want to. Support and love the people and blessings around you. But as soon as something ceases to provide you support or provides you with the same toxicity you aim to avoid, no matter who that person is or what that position is, this is your sign that it is OK to let it go. 

Mica Pflug is a columnist. Contact her at [email protected].