![]() We ignore all the signs urging us to throw in the towel because we may mistakenly assume that our previous efforts were for naught if we move on. “We have this intuition that when things get bad, and it’s completely obvious that I should quit, I’m gonna stop,” Duke says. She cites an example of a marathon runner who broke her leg eight miles in and still finished the race. We want to say we exhausted every option and therefore giving up was out of our control. When faced with the option to quit or stick it out, Duke says, people are almost always inclined to persist, because we want to know how a scenario resolves. “We can update and question the lessons from childhood,” says Ellen Hendriksen, author of How to Be Yourself: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety, “and take what works and what was the intended message and leave behind the childlike all-or-nothing blanket statements that we might have absorbed.”Ī less obvious barrier to quitting is the common tendency to persevere over giving up, says Annie Duke, author of Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away. Or perhaps you think your current job is as good as you’ll ever get without considering alternatives. Maybe you see quitting an intramural kickball team as letting down your teammates. If you’ve been taught to endure, no matter the cost, you may equate resignation with failure. “You can’t just be pursuing all the time,” Xie says, “without quitting.” Why quitting is so hardĪside from the negative cultural messages around quitting, throwing in the towel can be difficult, in part, because of internal, self-imposed rules. There is power in abandoning what no longer serves you - that is, if you’ve given it a fair shot. Instead of being seen as a failure, quitting can be an opportunity to reclaim time and to rethink passions, relationships, and accomplishments. “You abandon old ways and embrace new ways,” she says, “you abandon old things and do new.” Rather, Keller argues, quitting can help you achieve your goals just as effectively as perseverance. “That very much served the interests of the people in power, because if you want to say to people, ‘Well, the reason you’re still poor and downtrodden is because you didn’t work hard.’” “If you weren’t successful, it just meant you didn’t work hard enough,” Keller says. Success was equated with hard work and perseverance through adversity. In the book Quitting: A Life Strategy, author Julia Keller traces the origins of the negative view of quitting to the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century. In American culture especially, those who give up on a practice, a hobby, or a goal are considered unambitious, lazy, even a failure. ![]() The act of quitting has earned notoriety. “It’s kind of fun,” she says, “to just see where life leads and follow the possibilities in a way that I don’t think I ever let myself, or that corporate structures really don’t allow you to do.” Now, she has the time and mental space to work on the manuscript and start a new law firm with a former coworker. Stepping away from her day job afforded Xie the time to not only finish her proposal, but to sell it. Do you have a question or idea for Even Better?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |