Hey everybody welcome to the Year Move Podcast where we are all about helping you make better decisions and live with fewer regrets I'm Andy Stanley and before we jump into today's podcast I wanted to take just a moment to personally thank everyone who supports your move.

It's the generosity of people like you are podcasts listeners and subscribers that make this podcast possible.

If listening to the podcast has inspired you to make better decisions or perhaps live life a little bit differently I hope you'll consider supporting your move with a tax deductible gift.

Just text your move all one word your move to 7777 that's your move to 7779774 visit your move.is slash give that your move.is slash give again to donate text your move to 777977 or you can see it.

As always thanks for your support and now back to the podcast.

We are just days into a brand new year you already know that and most of us I mean this is I include myself and this most of us want this year to be better than last year and this year can be better than last year but it's going to require some things from us.

I mean I think you would agree with that if we just do what we've always been doing we're going to get the same results year after year after year.

But there's a way to have a brand new year I mean a better year but it's going to require a bit of honest and honestly awkward evaluation.

It's going to require a bit of honest and awkward contemplation and even some honest and awkward transparency perhaps with another person.

So if you want this year to be better than last year maybe even the year before I want to ask you a question and I want you to consider this question and I'm going to ask you this question about four or five or six different ways.

Here's the question I want to ask you is you think about entering a brand new year what are you holding on to that's holding you back what are you holding you back what are you holding on to that actually if you're honest has a hold on you.

And what are you holding on to that has a hold on you that the people around you who love you secretly or maybe not so secretly wish that you would let go of what's weighing what is weighing you down because you refuse to let it go what's weighing you down because you it's really up to you because you refuse to let it go.

And initially you thought this would make your life better but actually it's just made your life more complicated what is slowing you down what is slowing you down because you just won't put it down what are you dragging around that slowing you down because you just won't acknowledge it and let it go.

What are you what are you holding on to what are you holding on to that you kind of feel compelled to keep hidden you just don't want her to ever find out you don't want him to find out you don't want them to find out if your kids knew you would just be humiliated if they found out at work if your friends knew if he knew if she knew if your roommate found out I mean if they found out you would be so humiliated but you keep dragging this thing around hoping nobody's going to find out and the truth is come on they know something's up right let me ask you one final way.

What are you holding on to that's making a monkey out of you because this is in fact how you trap a monkey let me explain it to you can look it up later you tie a large coconut to a tree you hollow out the coconut you place a banana in the coconut the monkey sticks his or her hand into the coconut grabs the banana and refuses to let it go and you don't really trap the monkey this way the monkey actually traps itself

but as you'll discover if you look this up not all monkeys can be trapped this way there's only a certain kind of monkey that can be trapped this way the monkey that lacks the intelligence to let go of the banana

so the bottom line for today's message if you have to leave early or you fall asleep or your electricity goes off here's the bottom line okay here it is ready let go of the banana and run away okay it is that simple now if you're not a Christian or not a Jesus follower with the way you describe it here if you're not really following Jesus you're not a religious person however you describe yourself that's pretty much all I have for you okay you you can take it from here you just got to identify what it is you're holding on to you

you're holding on to realize that it's costing you at home it's costing you financially it's costing you in terms of what's happening to your body I mean you know better than I do you know it's going on your life so the bottom line is you just need to let it go and you need to walk away you you take it from there except to you at your life

and you if you haven't heard me say this before I just acknowledge what you already know and that I have no right in the world to tell you how to live your life I don't have any authority over you your life is your life if you're not a Jesus follower so you just kind of take this practical application and run with it okay

but before you do that I just do want to add one thing and then I'll talk to those of us who are Jesus follower for just a second I would add one thing it's important to know and I've kind of already said this that it's possible whatever it is that you're holding on to that you're dragging around you're not just hurting yourself by holding on by holding on you are actually holding off by holding on you are actually holding off the people who love you the most and the people that you love the most and as I said they kind of know something

they kind of know something's up and they may have tried to talk to you about it before and you got so defensive and you got so defensive that they haven't brought it up so you think they've forgotten it or you think they don't notice it they haven't forgotten they notice they just don't want to face your defensiveness so as you consider again I'm just this is just suggestions I'm not saying you have to do anything you're we're just you know you're just here you're just watching I would just highly recommend that if you realized over the course the next few minutes yeah you're holding on something to hold on to the whole thing

holding on something holding on to something is holding you back for the sake of the people you love and for the sake of the people that love you would you just let it go now if you are a Christian or if you are a Jesus follower there's more

...