You’ve glimpsed it, haven’t you? That ‘hidden treasure’ we explored in What’s Your Hidden Treasure? Recognising it is the exhilarating first step.
But then comes the often trickier part.
You look at your current life, likely filled with perfectly ‘good’ things – a decent job, stable commitments, familiar routines – and you realise these good things are consuming the very time, energy, and focus your treasure desperately needs to flourish.
Remember the man in the parable? Finding the treasure wasn’t the end of his story. His next move was pivotal. Filled with joy, he went and sold everything else he owned to acquire that field. He understood that possessing the treasure required letting go of other assets.
This article tackles that courageous, often deeply uncomfortable, next step which is ‘selling the field’ – letting go of good for great. We’ll explore why letting go of good is necessary for fully embracing your ‘Great’, the real fears involved, and I’ll share my own very recent story of making this exact, nerve-wracking choice.
Why Your Treasure Demands the Whole Field
In our previous conversation, we talked about identifying your personal hidden treasure.
Whether that treasure is building a purpose-driven business, dedicating yourself to a creative calling, serving a community need, or fundamentally reshaping your lifestyle around core values, it’s rarely something you can successfully nurture in just the leftover scraps of your time and energy.
True purpose, deep passion, and work that feels like your unique contribution demand more. They demand focus. They demand dedicated energy. They require significant mental and emotional real estate.
Trying to cultivate your ‘Great’ while simultaneously maintaining every single ‘good’ thing you’re already committed to is often a recipe for burnout, frustration, and painfully slow progress on the very thing that matters most.
Your treasure needs room to breathe and space to grow. It often needs the whole field, or at least a substantial, intentionally cleared portion of it.
The Comfort (and Trap) of the ‘Good Enough’ Field
If pursuing our treasure clearly requires making space, why is it often so incredibly difficult, even agonising, to let go of the good things currently occupying that space?
Well, that’s because:
- It offers security: A predictable income, a familiar routine, a known quantity. These elements feel incredibly safe, particularly in a world that often feels uncertain.
- It provides comfort: We know the rules of the good field. We know how to operate within it. It requires less risk, less vulnerability than stepping into the unknown, potentially challenging territory where our ‘Great’ resides.
- It brings external validation: Society, and sometimes our families and communities, often applaud stability, conventional success, and ‘sensible’ choices. Letting go of a good job or a respectable commitment can invite questions, judgment, or misunderstanding.
- We fear the unknown: This is a big one. What if we ‘sell the field’ and the ‘treasure’ doesn’t pan out as hoped? What if we fail? What if we regret it?
- The sunk cost fallacy whispers insistently, “But I’ve already invested so much time/energy/money/effort into this good thing” making it feel wasteful to walk away.
This ‘good enough’ field can feel comfortable, secure, and even praiseworthy from the outside. But staying there purely out of comfort or fear, especially when your treasure is persistently calling your name, can prevent you from experiencing the deeper fulfilment and alignment you crave.
My Story: Trading a Good Gig for This Dream
Let me get personal and share my own recent wrestling match with this ‘sell the field’ decision, because this isn’t just abstract theory for me; it’s lived experience.
For a while, I was juggling a comfortable freelance writing role with several other smaller writing gigs. It paid the bills consistently and provided flexibility which I valued. On paper, and even in practice day-to-day, it was a perfectly sensible arrangement.
But alongside it, the hidden treasure, building Definitions by Adebajo, began calling with increasing urgency. This platform, the vision for this community, the deep desire to share ideas around practical productivity for creatives, living purposefully and everything else we do here felt like my real work. It felt deeply aligned with my core purpose and values in a way the good gig, despite its undeniable benefits, simply didn’t.
The internal conflict became intense. Could I realistically let go of that guaranteed monthly income? The fear was palpable. What if I can’t make this blog sustainable quickly enough? (It still isn’t). Eventually, I realised the good gig was consuming the finite hours, precious mental energy, and creative focus that Definitions needed to truly take root and flourish. I couldn’t fully cultivate my treasure while still diligently tending the old field. One had to take precedence.
So, fuelled by a potent mix of stomach-churning terror and exhilarating hope, I made the leap. I sold the field. I informed my client/employer and stepped away from the writing role.
Sending that final email felt like one of the riskiest and yet most profoundly liberating and right things I’ve done in recent memory. It wasn’t about the old job being bad but about courageously acknowledging that my ‘treasure’ required, and frankly deserved my focused investment.
Finding the Courage to ‘Sell Your Field’
My story is just one narrative, and your ‘good field’ and ‘hidden treasure’ will inevitably look different. But the underlying challenge which is to find the deep-seated courage to consciously let go, often involves similar internal work.
How can you cultivate that necessary courage for your journey?
- Get Crystal Clear on Your ‘Treasure’ & Your ‘Why’: Reconnect powerfully with why this ‘Great’ matters so profoundly to you. The clearer, more compelling, and more visceral your vision for your treasure is, the stronger your resolve will be to make the necessary space for it. Visualise it. Feel it. Why is it non-negotiable?
- Calculate the Real Cost of Staying: Actively shift your focus. Instead of dwelling only on what you might lose by letting go of the ‘good’, rigorously calculate what you are already losing by holding on. What is clinging to the ‘good’ currently costing you in terms of energy, joy, potential fulfilment, peace of mind, creative expression, or meaningful progress toward your treasure? Sometimes the cost of inaction is far greater than the risk of action.
- Consider Your Approach: Gradual Transition vs. Clean Break? Does your situation allow for a phased approach? Can you strategically reduce your commitment to the ‘good’ field first (e.g., cutting back hours, delegating, simplifying)? Or, like my situation perhaps, does your ‘treasure’ require a bolder, cleaner break to truly gain momentum? Be honest with yourself about what is needed and what is feasible.
- Mitigate Practical Fears (Wisely, Not Indefinitely): Acknowledge the real-world constraints. If financial security is a major fear, what practical steps can you take now to create a small buffer or reduce expenses? Can you map out a basic financial runway? Sensible planning can bolster courage but be wary of letting endless ‘what if’ planning become a form of procrastination that keeps you stuck in the ‘good’ field indefinitely.
- Gather Your Allies & Wise Counsel: Share your deliberations and fears, but choose your confidantes carefully. Talk to trusted friends, mentors, family members, or perhaps a coach who truly understands your vision and values, and who can offer support and perspective without projecting their fears or conventional expectations onto you.
- Focus on the Anticipated Joy & Alignment: Remember the parable. The man acted out of joy at his discovery. Connect emotionally with the feeling of liberation, purpose, alignment, and deep satisfaction that pursuing your ‘treasure’ promises. Let that positive, compelling vision pull you forward and make letting go feel less like a sacrifice and more like a joyful investment in your most authentic life.
Investing in Your True North
‘Selling the field’ demands significant courage. It often pushes against our deep-seated instincts for safety, security, and certainty.
Yet, as the simple parable powerfully suggests, and as personal experience frequently confirms, it is often the non-negotiable investment required for building a life rich in authentic purpose and deep fulfilment.
What ‘good field’ in your own life might be consuming the precious space your hidden treasure needs to grow? I genuinely invite you to share your reflections or experiences in the comments below.
Revisit the process of identifying your treasure or explore further insights on making difficult choices aligned with your values, and be sure to subscribe for more inspiration and practical strategies on living purposefully.
