Practice Quitting - Try it out for size
How to get good at quitting so you don't waste time in a life not meant for you
Practice quitting and try it out for size.
Mastering how to quit is a skill that we stumble across unwillingly. When we realise that the only thing left to do is ‘give up’ on the last shred of hope we had. For that job aspiration, for that project we started, for that ambition we were working on achieving or sometimes for that relationship that hasn’t evolved. Quitting or ‘giving up’ feels in a way that we are abandoning a part of ourselves so we hold onto it so that little part of our identity does not die.
(Stand by for my 10 steps on how to see this through)
But eventually we are forced into taking action and making that decision to let go AND… something great happens. That ‘death’ of that part of our identity was the necessary shedding of the old skin in order for the new to grow. And after this happens to you once or twice your realise that quitting teaches us more about where we are heading and what we need than succeeding on our first try ever could. So what first was something you avoided at all costs can become a tool you use to get you to a fulfilling life sooner. All by embracing quitting.
Take a look at where you are right now. Maybe you feel stuck between the life you know and the life you are curious about. Maybe you are living out your own sunk cost fallacy. Refusing to quit that thing because quitting would mean the loss is ‘realized’. The years working on that side hustle would feel like wasted time if you threw in the towel. Or quitting that job after just one year on the job but 3 years at university would feel like such a waste of time and money so instead we will invest more time in something we know isn’t right, to not feel like we made a mistake. “At least I’m using my degree! / at least I am not a quitter!’.
Like a gambler refusing to leave the casino until they can turn their losses around, these decisions play out the same. Until i have left the casino, while I am still playing it, I technically have not lost.
But being a quitter is not the worst case scenario. Not quitting when you should have is. Because that is when you lose time, and nothing is worth that loss if you can avoid it. It’s time to embrace quitting.
I had big aspirations to be an actress for all my adolescence and early 20s (as cliche as that is). I never made it (surprise!). But I did have some great call backs a few small roles and what seemed like close calls. But as I got deeper into my 20s, and not much was happening, I started to look at other options for my life, while still desperately wanting to make it work. I felt like I couldn’t fully commit to another decision - such as studying something at uni, living abroad or going on a huge trip or even changing my appearance drastically. because I may miss THAT audition that would turn it all around. But nothing was coming my way, and I started to feel like I may be in this predicament for years. So after one of the worst years of my life, which included my acting agent dropping me and me needing to go out to market to find new representation, I made a decision.
