Getting "Unstuck"

 Tonight I experienced the frustration of realizing that an old set of data I had in 2014 is locked inside a computer that is too old to start up. I was looking for this data for a recent course I had registered in, and now I am beginning to realize that it might be locked for good. It's sometimes saddening when you get a glimpse of what could have been, only to realize that it's literally locked away in the past. And it can lead to the sort of fixation of trying to retrieve it, literally at "any cost", which can be quite debilitating to say the least. But it's important to reflect at the end of the day that something that is "gone" might not have really meant to be. It's important in those moments to "unstick oneself".
   One such practice I have found most helpful for this purpose is the ability to see that something is not always as golden as one thought. If I am thinking that something is good to have, am I pushing it to "absolutely essential"? If so, is that realistic to have as a goal, or might it be only an assumption? Thinking that something is absolutely necessary is a form of unnecessary attachment, and it might be helpful to start looking at reasons why the thing I seek is not as glamorous as I thought: for example, is the data I am seeking as complete and as promising as I thought, or am I only imagining it to be so great?
   Another strategy is quite simply to let go. This sounds very deceptively simple, but it's not necessarily simple at all. Letting go requires a lot of courage, and also the space to see that there could be another avenue or direction that hasn't yet been discovered. When I can observe that my current attachment to a thought is preventing new thoughts or possibilities to emerge, that might just be my cue to start to let go a bit and see what's happening and why I am so attached to the one thing, unable to see other possibilities.