Be a Quitter
“There is surely nothing quite so useless as doing with great efficiency what should not be done at all.”
"Don't be a quitter."
"Always finish what you start."
These phrases echo through society. They are meant to symbolize commitment and endurance. While their intentions are good, they oversimplify and discredit the value of quitting. They present quitting as a bad thing when it can be good and even necessary.
Quitting is part of life. Without quitting, we would not have the ability to start new things. We are all quitters.
Starting is glamorous. Quitting is often viewed as failure. This could not be further from the truth. Quitting does not mean you are admitting defeat. It means you realize your resources are limited and you want to pursue something else where you see a higher level of potential.
Even saying the word quit make us feel bad inside.
There is a big difference between labeling yourself as a quitter and choosing to quit as an action. One dictates who you are and how you see yourself, while the other indicates a single action. Don't let quitting or the fear of quitting run your life.
I can quit eating a brand of cereal. That does not make me feel the same inside as quitting a job or a baseball team midway through the season. They are both acts of quitting, but they feel differently inside.
If you know the job or baseball are not for you, it is ok to quit. In fact, not quitting is harming your ability to pursue other things.
When we quit something, we free up our most valuable resource, our time. If we continue to do things simply because we started them, then we are wasting significant parts of our life on things we know are not good for us.
It is hard to start something new until you free up space by intentionally killing something that is already dead.
What are you going to quit today?