Surrender

Let go and show up completely

Robert Weigel
July 27, 2025

I used to think surrendering meant living passively, getting tossed around by life like a leaf in the wind. Turns out, it's the opposite.

Surrendering to life means stepping toward what excites you, whether it scares you or not.

You can’t do this half-assed.

You must do this from a place of trust and you must act when you feel the pull toward someone or something.

Your day is peppered with these moments. Each of them is an invitation into the unknown where you will experience true growth.

You might be in a shit storm right now. Surrendering into the unknown with hardship is equally as important. I will leave you with a quote that I’ve found tremendously helpful over this past year:

So you mustn’t be frightened, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall. Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don’t know what work these conditions are doing inside you? Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question of where all this is coming from and where it is going? Since you know, after all, that you are in the midst of transitions and you wished for nothing so much as to change. If there is anything unhealthy in your reactions, just bear in mind that sickness is the means by which an organism frees itself from what is alien; so one must simply help it to be sick, to have its whole sickness and to break out with it, since that is the way it gets better.

- Rainer Maria Rilke

If this idea resonates, read The Surrender Experiment. It’s a fitting title, and the book delivers. I’ve spoken about the book before, and still highly encourage you to read it.

Wherever you are, chasing something or stuck in the storm, try letting go of control just enough to see what unfolds. You might be surprised who you become.

P.S. thank you to everyone who shared the feedback on my previous newsletter. Had some awesome suggestions and have decided to keep the newsletter stripped back for the most part.

I have an exciting video coming up involving hitchiking and the hunt for Lebanon’s greatest Shawarma