Loredana Regep, MD, CPQC is a seasoned medical professional with over 20 years of global leadership experience in the biotech industry, now focused on coaching and consulting. She specializes in leadership, healthcare, mental fitness and spirituality, helping people thrive mentally, physically and spiritually and live fulfilling lives.
We live in a world obsessed with more knowledge, skills, possessions, and achievements. Our culture celebrates accumulation as the path to success. LinkedIn profiles showcase growing skill lists. Resumes boast expanding responsibilities. Leaders measure growth by what they've gained, added, or acquired.
Haven't we forgotten something essential in this mad race toward accumulation? We’ve overlooked a fundamental truth as our lives and minds grow increasingly cluttered.
Yet what if the most powerful catalyst for personal and professional transformation isn't addition at all but subtraction, the deliberate practice of letting go?
The invisible burden of attachment
Research in cognitive psychology reveals that our mental bandwidth is finite. Every attachment we maintain, whether to outdated beliefs, rigid processes, or perfectionistic standards, consumes a portion of this limited resource. Research in cognitive psychology reveals that our mental bandwidth appears to be finite. Every attachment we maintain, whether to outdated beliefs, rigid processes, or perfectionistic standards, consumes a portion of this limited resource. As neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Levitin explains in his book "The Organized Mind": "Attention is the most essential mental resource for any organism, the gateway to all thought and action. It is not a limitless resource." He notes that "modern society presents us with far more opportunities for distraction than in the past," making deliberate management of our mental focus even more crucial.
These attachments don't just compete for our attention in the present. They actively shape how we perceive opportunities and challenges. Our past experiences, successes, and mainly failures create mental models that filter our reality. When we cling to these models beyond their usefulness, we remain captives of our history, unable to fully engage with the present or envision new futures.
Consider how often you've heard (or said): "This is how we've always done it," "That approach didn't work before," or "I'm not the kind of person who can." These statements reveal the power of past attachments to dictate future possibilities.
Professional success in the 21st century requires cognitive agility and emotional resilience qualities that become increasingly difficult to maintain when unnecessary attachments weigh us down. These attachments manifest across multiple dimensions of our professional lives:
Cognitive attachments: Outdated knowledge, rigid thinking patterns, and resistance to new perspectives.
Emotional attachments: Fear-based decision-making, imposter syndrome, and identity fusion with work roles.
Behavioural attachments: Inefficient workflows, micromanagement tendencies, and comfort-zone limitations.
Relational attachments: Unhealthy professional dynamics, inappropriate expectations, and difficulty with boundaries.
Each attachment acts as cognitive overhead, consuming mental resources that could otherwise be directed toward innovation, strategic thinking, and meaningful connection.
The neuroscience of release
The difficulty of letting go is neurologically hardwired. Research on the brain's negativity bias suggests we tend to cling more strongly to what we already possess than to pursue potential gains. While this tendency was evolutionarily advantageous for our ancestors, it creates significant barriers to adaptation in today's rapidly evolving professional landscape.
However, neuroplasticity research also reveals our capacity to rewire these default responses. When we practice intentional release, letting go of what no longer serves our highest purposes, we can create neural pathways that make subsequent releases easier, potentially establishing a virtuous cycle of increasing cognitive freedom and emotional flexibility.
Strategic release: A leadership imperative
For those in leadership positions, strategically releasing becomes even more crucial. Leadership studies suggest that "letting go" appears to be an essential differentiator between effective and ineffective senior leaders. Successful executives often demonstrate the following:
Willingness to abandon strategies that aren't producing desired results
Ability to delegate appropriately without micromanaging
Comfort with releasing control over processes while maintaining focus on outcomes
Capacity to update their leadership approach as organizations and teams evolve
These leaders understand that their effectiveness isn't measured by how much they control but by how well they foster environments where others can thrive, which necessarily involves letting go.
4 strategies of conscious release
Strategic letting go operates across four primary dimensions. For each, I've included practical implementation strategies and powerful questions to guide your practice:
1. Cognitive release
Challenging limiting beliefs, updating mental models, and abandoning outdated knowledge.
Implementation strategies:
Schedule quarterly "knowledge audits" to identify which expertise remains relevant and which needs updating or releasing.
Create a "beliefs challenge" practice where you regularly question one long-held assumption about your capabilities.
Powerful questions for reflection:
"What beliefs about my capabilities have I outgrown but continue to honour?"
"If I were starting fresh today, what would I choose not to pick up again?"
2. Emotional release
Processing and releasing emotional attachments to outcomes, identities, and past experiences.
Implementation strategies:
Develop a mindfulness practice that creates space between stimulus and response.
Establish a "success and failure" journal that documents lessons without maintaining attachment to past events.
Powerful questions for decision:
"Does holding onto this serve my highest priorities or merely my comfort?"
"What becomes possible if I release this attachment?"
3. Behavioural release
Abandoning inefficient processes, delegating appropriately, and releasing perfectionism.
Implementation strategies:
Conduct regular workflow analysis with explicit identification of what can be eliminated, automated, or delegated.
Create a "good enough" threshold for different categories of work to combat perfectionism.
Powerful questions for action:
"What small, low-risk attachment could I practice releasing this week?"
"Where am I overcontrolling something that would benefit from a lighter touch?"
4. Relational release
Setting appropriate boundaries, clarifying expectations, and releasing unhealthy professional dynamics.
Implementation strategies:
Perform relationship inventories to assess which professional connections energize versus deplete you.
Establish a clear protocol for recalibrating imbalanced workplace dynamics.
Powerful questions for connection:
"Which professional relationships am I maintaining out of obligation rather than value?"
"What boundaries need strengthening to protect my energy and focus?"
Remember that this practice benefits from community support and celebration. Consider creating accountability partnerships with colleagues who understand the value of a strategic release and acknowledge your progress by documenting the benefits you experience from letting go.
The organizational imperative
As organizations face unprecedented rates of change, the capacity for strategic release becomes not merely advantageous but essential for survival. Those who cling to outdated business models, resist evolving customer expectations, or maintain inefficient processes will increasingly be outpaced by more adaptable competitors.
Forward-thinking organizations are beginning to formalize this practice through dedicated "Stop Doing" initiatives parallel to traditional strategic planning. These initiatives explicitly identify what the organization will release to create capacity for higher-value activities.
Conclusion: The paradox of achievement through release
The most profound aspect of strategic letting go is its counterintuitive nature. In a culture that celebrates the accumulation of knowledge, achievements, responsibilities, and possessions, the suggestion that release leads to tremendous success seems paradoxical. Yet experience consistently demonstrates that our most incredible personal and organizational advancements often begin with letting go.
As management theorist Jim Collins observed, "A great piece of art is composed not just of what is in the final piece, but equally important, what is not." Collins emphasizes that exceptional organizations and leaders use "stop doing" lists as much as "to do" lists.
The art of letting go isn't about giving up or lowering standards. It's about creating the essential space required for what matters most to flourish. Our most significant potential for transformation, innovation, and meaningful impact lies in that space.
The author is a Certified Positive Intelligence Coach with decades of leadership experience in healthcare. She facilitates personal and professional transformation workshops, including "The Art of Letting Go: Transform Your Life and Work," scheduled for April 2nd, 2025.
Read more from Loredana Regep
Loredana Regep, MD, Coach, Mentor, and Consultant
Loredana Regep, MD, CPQC is a multifaceted professional with over two decades of global leadership experience in the biotech industry. A certified Positive Intelligence Coach, Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, and Coach for Innovators, she now focuses on innovative approaches to personal and organizational transformation. Her expertise spans healthcare, digital health innovation, strategic leadership, mental fitness and spirituality.
She now works with leaders, parents, and teenagers in a holistic (body, mind, and spirit) manner to build resilience, unlock performance, improve relationships, and nurture well-being. Through her support, clients gain clarity when making important life decisions and reclaim their authentic selves and peace of mind.
