CONFESSION!!! My phone contact list is the same one I’ve had since 2001. No joke! Each year and every phone since it has grown, and I’ve never lost a contact, period.
In contrast, people who put on social media, “Hello, I’ve lost my phone and contact list. Could you please send me your number so I can put it in my phone?” I wonder, “how do they let that happen?” “Don’t they back up their phone to their computer or a cloud?”
Needless to say, while I’ve done well to keep each number I’ve ever collected, that doesn’t mean I should have kept each contact forever. In contrast, I’ve recently started culling my phone of some of these contacts. Names who I’ll never contact ever again; worse, names I don’t even remember how I know them. Either way, it’s time to clean out the contact list, and the benefits are more significant than just a cleaner phone experience.
Letting go is something each of us needs for life. For me, clearing my contact list allows me to let go—both the good and the bad names.
Yes, I don’t remember every name, and, more importantly, there are names I need to forget. Otherwise, you’ll end up hitting the wrong name, thinking you are calling one of your close friends. Only to have an awkward conversation with a prior temperamental coworker you never intended to have again. True story! But clearing out my phone’s contact list is emotionally more valuable than just the negative contacts we make throughout the years. Instead, letting go is a release of the past to make room for the future, a principle that applies even to our phone’s contact list.
In response, I’ve deleted some of my contacts. I cherished a few contacts at one point in my life, while others needed to go a long time ago. Either way, their deletion is because I’ve not contacted them in years, some in over a decade. The likelihood that I’m not going to reach them again is slim. Therefore it’s time to remove them from my contact list.
Removing even the good contacts is a form of letting go of the past. It’s tough, but deleting them from my list allows me to positively reflect on them one last time with joy rather than hold on to them forever with clutter in my life. Space in my brain and emotions are now free to focus on new and possibly even more hopeful things. Weirdly, I’m able to “forget the past and press on towards what’s ahead, which is the upward call in Christ Jesus.”
Again, connecting your phone’s contact list with letting go of the past might seem weird, but I encourage you to try it. You might not have 20 years of contacts in your phone like mine, but at any length, it’s worth the emotional release. Not only will you have a cleaner contact list on your phone, but space to build your future, no matter your experience with the individual.
This article was written by Michael J. Chitwood at verticalpaths.com.
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