Quit

I think we are all very familiar with the idea of quitting, whether it be a job, a diet, or a sports team. I grew up with the idea that I should feel guilty for quitting and it brought about a sense of shame for me. I felt that if I were better at ___________, I wouldn’t need to quit and then I would gain approval. I’m sure we all grew up never wanting to be identified as a ‘quitter’. This is something I avoided because I wanted to fit in and not be ostracized by others or to show that I had weaknesses. In many ways, this idea of not quitting, has built my character and determination to succeed even when faced with failure or setbacks, but, is it sometimes okay to quit? I think most of us think of quitting in a negative context, but what if we mastered quitting things like bad diets, mentally beating ourselves up, and Monopoly? I think we might be better for being a quitter of certain things.  Think of all the time and energy that would be available to expend on more enriching things if we all quit the behaviors holding us back.

Physical Spaces– Imagine if you quit bringing items into your home unless it was something you need, love, or absolutely use. While you are decluttering, it is very difficult to make tangible progress if you are still adding unnecessary items to the space. Practicing this kind of quitting will at least stop the problem from getting bigger so you can build a plan to declutter.

Mental Space– Your mind is the best place to start when making decisions about what to quit and when to quit. This is where your thoughts are formed, so it is important to be aware of the kind of thoughts you have that cause you to quit and not quit. I know you have had at least one goal that you were so sure of your reason but over time you acted in a way broke your promise to yourself. Maybe this was a diet or food plan you committed to. At first, you were seeing some results from your effort, but then you stopped seeing the results from the same effort and your brain started making excuses. 

“This just isn’t working anymore.” 

“I tried and it’s just not going to work for my body.” 

“Why do I keep putting myself through this discomfort, just to see no results?” 

These are the types of volatile questions that get your brain begging for you to quit and go back to your old ways of eating. This is the type of quitting to avoid. This is listening to your toddler brain and giving in because it gets hard. 

Things getting hard is not an excuse to quit. For the example with food, if you take out all the drama about the food items themselves, it’s not harder to place a piece of broccoli in your mouth over a cookie. The ‘hard’ part only comes from your thoughts and how convincing they are to you as you attempt to resist them. 

During that moment of resistance, it’s best to get curious about the urge and not jump to immediately gratifying your thoughts by eating the cookie. 

Remove the drama and you can bring levity to the situation. 

Then objectively view your thoughts and make a decision about which thoughts is more meaningful to your growth. 

Then quit all the thoughts that are undermining your progress. 

You get to decide. Do you quit eating sugar or do you quit your diet? 

What kind of a quitter do you want to be? 

So when you find yourself wanting to quit something that you really want when it gets ‘hard’, decide to quit your distracting and undermining thoughts instead. The beauty about this process is it can be applied to all facets of your life from relationships to your job, to your beliefs.

Financial Space– One way to find out which purchasing habits you should quit is to review your bank/credit card statements for the past three months. Now imagine if you posted all of your transactions on Facebook for all your friends to see (they can’t see your total bank balance or debt balance….just transactions). Hopefully imagining that didn’t make you start to sweat! If there are any purchases that you would be ashamed of or embarrassed by, either because of the items you purchased or the cumulative dollar amount you paid for certain things, then that is a good indication you probably should consider quitting those purchasing habits.  

Reviewing your purchasing habits can be extremely beneficially in getting in touch with yourself and where you are saying there is value. If your purchases are out of alignment with your true values, then it may be time to reconsider and make some positive changes. And, hey hopefully increase your savings rate. 

Final Thoughts on Quitting

I usually think quitting will feel more uncomfortable than the actual consequences I experience once I’ve quit. I won’t say this is true for all things, but if intentions are pure, then it generally is true. Sure there are some things that we have quit, that we have regretted, but that is usually because the decision to quit came from a place of running away from and not from growth. If you are considering quitting something, just make sure you really like your reason and you like the person you are learning to become and that quitting will help you move in that direction. 

What would you like to work on quitting? I would love to help you succeed at whatever is on your list. 

Comment below or send me an email to get the conversation started. 

Come on. “Be a better quitter with me!” 🙂