The Fine Art of Quitting
I was thinking today that instead of inspiring people to reach their goals, I should encourage them to give up. *silence* *more silence and crickets*
What a mind-blowing concept – really. Why isn’t there a course on this? That really would have helped stubborn me quit earlier instead of wasting my time.
If you’re listening, and it’s getting into your Aztec Hole, then let’s entertain this idea as a postive way to solve problems. By the way, I’m doing this for your own good.
Table of Contents
Sweeping a dirt floor
The reason I bring quitting up is because some of us lack the internal guidance of when and where to stop (I’m one of them).
Case in point: when I was first married, my husband and I were looking for a place to live. There was a small acreage with a rickety old farmhouse that was in a good location. The owner of the property was resistant, but we talked her into renting to us.
The owner had previously lived there, and walked away from it with no further maintenance or cleaning. It needed a lot of cleaning. It was one of those situations that the more you dug into it, the more problems you found.
I was on a cleaning frenzy, trying to get the master bedroom up to par. That always reminds me of an old TV sitcom about pioneers “Best of the West” – where one of the characters was sweeping a dirt floor – and getting nowhere.
It was my father-in-law who walked in and said, “Renee, it’s not worth it, let’s go.” I was crushed, but I understood. He knew that the owner would never agree to costly improvements. These would have been necessary to make the place livable, despite all of our free sweat equity.
Our internalized gold standard is holding us back.
-Renee’s Rabbit Hole
Lazy, or brilliant?
Answer these questions, are you a perfectionist? A hard worker? For us, quitting is a bad word.
Our moral character drives our performance in everything we do; it’s engrained in us. It’s the call of every marketing campaign of every great company: we ooze of integrity, we only offer the very best to our customers, we give nothing less than 100%.
Hitting below the bar is not acceptable for our types. I think our internalized gold standard is holding us back.
Have you ever envied the person who takes shortcuts, and comes out on top? As of late, I have. It’s hard to admit, but I have perceived lazy behavior as a character flaw. A flaw that seems to be working in their favor.
I know, it isn’t easy seeing someone, especially a young someone, jump to the front of the line in success, when you’ve tried so hard for years.
Ignorance and not knowing any better probably prevents those people from seeing the pitfalls. I see all of the pitfalls all of the time. I’ve made it my full-time job to whack them out.
It turns out, while I’m whacking other people are jumping in with both feet, taking risks, making a few mistakes, and winning.
How can I become a quitter?
Ah, there is the secret. If you think a bad habit is hard to get rid of, imagine getting rid of the good ones. Think of the hard-working individuals that take pride in their work ethic. Change is not easy.
The good thing, you can embrace quitting with others. There is a movement of quitting on Youtube. Search for “10 Things I Quit” or “10 Things I Stopped”. Even better – “10 Things I Stopped to Improve My Life.”
Youtuber Gabe Bult covers 15 things he quit across all aspects of his life. One of them was cutting back on reading and research: “I stopped reading so many books. After a couple of hundred bucks I knew most of what they were saying already… I started to focus on doing.”
Letting go of perfectionism
The delightful Virginia Kerr offers content creator tips with a focus on productivity. Not surprisingly, working smarter not harder involves quitting some things.
In her video Edit YouTube Videos 10X FASTER: Productivity hacks! she includes some very practical advice to gain time. Many of the tips speak to our perfectionism and letting go, such as over-producing and dropping the end goal of a polished final video.
In Virginia’s words, “Done is better than perfect.” I also love the fact that she opted for “quick and dirty” graphic creation versus a more prim and proper approach. This wise advice can be applied to almost anything.
Virginia’s message came into my Aztec Hole at the right time. Some of things she was obsessing on, I was doing the same. For some reason, it was a relief to hear it from another person going through a similar experience with perfection.
That’s why Alcoholics Anonymous, and Quit Smoking are so successful, you’re quitting with support.
Conclusion
I hope I have talked you into letting go, releasing the tight grip of a well-done finished product just a bit. The important thing is to know when is the right time to see something through – versus days, months, or even years of misguided enthusiasm.
Videos of other people quitting, or bouncing ideas off of a friend may help the quitting go smoother. Good luck with the journey! -Renee
