I was eating a bowl of ice cream the other day when my 5 week old son began to cry. I had just scooped it and sat down on the couch to enjoy it when it started.
Being the father that I am, I put down the bowl and picked up my son. I gently rocked him, gave him his pacifier, and looked at the ice cream and thought, “that’s going to melt”.
I’m a first time dad so all of this is new to me. I was trying to figure out how to grab the bowl and hold my son. Honestly, it was a little more difficult than I thought it would be. When I did figure out how to adjust us both, I was able to get to my ice cream before it melted.
Fast forward a few days and I thought there was some old idiom about being able to pick something up while holding something in your hand, and how it was impossible. Well, google let me down so I don’t really know if there is such an old idiom. (It might be from the Bible. If you know it, please share it with me)
I never really understood this metaphor of picking things up while holding on to something else until today when I was thinking about the bowl of ice cream.
When you are holding on to something that you think is precious, whether physical or emotional, it’s nearly impossible to pick up something new and carry it with you.
The day with the ice cream, I was craving something sweet so I piled high a bowl. But when my son began to cry, I had to make a decision. Do I hold on to the bowl or put it down and pick up the kid?
The same thing when you are carrying around stresses and burdens, or even habits. You can’t pick up new habits when you are holding onto old ones. The key to moving on with life and living happier or healthier is to identify the things that are holding you back, put them down, and pick up the things that you find much more precious.
This is so much easier said than done. I’m still working on it every single day but I think I finally understand what the idiom means. The next step is figuring out what I need to put down.
You can’t carry your burdens and your success together. Burdens weigh too much. Learn to put them down so that you may embrace your success with both arms.