Your next step always depends on two ingredients: how well you are maximizing where you are right now and how ready you are to do what is necessary to get to the next place. And sometimes that depends on ending some of what is happening today. As my friend’s path illustrates, that is a winning combination for the best tomorrow you can find. You do

“So, I just had this incredible awareness that in a strange way, everything I have that is of value has come from being willing to end something that I was doing and go to the next step. The endings and the great new beginnings are somehow linked together. You can’t have one without the other. It is a weird paradox, but that is what I really

“Second, when it is time to have the courage to take the next step, you have to do that and not be afraid. I am not talking about being risky or making stupid moves. But I am talking about not being afraid to take bold steps when it is obviously time. That takes courage and faith, but you have to do that when it is time.

First, you have to do the very, very best you can do at each step along the way. Wherever you find yourself, be the best you can be and make the best out of whatever that is. Make it work the best that it can work, doing whatever is in your power.

Are you in a physical state right now that is not sustainable? Too much travel? Too little sleep? Too much “on the go”? Too much taxing of your physical system? For a prolonged period of time with no end in sight? Too little exercise? Too much junk food?

Think of the results of all of those scenarios, and you will see how profound sustainability really is. In each one, as time goes on, something or someone is getting depleted or damaged. For that reason, sustainability is one of the most important reasons for a necessary ending. If you are doing anything that by definition cannot continue because

• What situation are you ending, or going to end, about which you should do some “metabolizing” work? • What project, strategy, loss, or other initiative should you and your team spend some “metabolizing” time on?

Here’s another way to say it: you can’t do the prudent thing if you cannot stand for it all to fall apart. Often, in necessary endings, you have to give something up or be willing to lose something in order to gain it.

This is a fundamental truth about endings: you have to be able to face losing some things you might want in order to be free to do the right thing. If you can’t, you are stuck.