32: The Temptation to Quit

After you’ve started your own project and create something, I’ve mentioned how you leave The Ordinary World. You hear your call to purpose and act on it. First of all, that’s awesome because most people never do this their whole life and go to the grave with their best ideas still inside them. Just by listening to this podcast, you’re asking yourself the questions that many people are too afraid to ask themselves. So, that deserves some recognition. But, something unique happens after you reach a turning point and experience a level of success. It’s like you’ve climbed so far up a mountain and got to the top and experience the high of being on top of Everest, then realize the hardest part is ahead of you. You still need to come down the mountain and that requires you to be even more dedicated. In fact, to keep going with the mountain climbing metaphor, most deaths on Mt. Everest happen on the way down. Just read the book Into Thin Air by one of my favorite authors, Jon Krakauer to know what I mean.  And I think you’ve all been there before. So, first I’d like to offer two tips to resist the temptation to quit and then one tip about when YOU SHOULD quit. 1. Have Faith In Yourself So, I’ve always loved learning about religions. And it’s incredible when you look at religious texts, how the temptation to quit is a recurring theme. In the Christian Bible, for instance, when Moses was leading the Hebrews out of Egypt and  to the land of milk and honey, he great weak and tired. He said in the Book of Numbers, “I am not able to bear all this people alone, because it is too heavy for me.” Moses had faith in God as a higher power that it would work on well in the end. Depending on whatever religion you believe or don’t believe in, have faith in your beliefs. For me, I do believe that when you live your life on purpose and it comes from a source of love and compassion, there are outside forces that help guide you on your path. But, also have faith in yourself. You have talents, you have a genius, and only you can walk the path you’re walking. You’re on your path for a purpose. 2. One Step at a Time Personally, I’ve always hated this piece of advice “one step at at time.” I know it comes from the 12-step model that’s popular in recovery programs, but it bugs me. I’m a let’s run kind of guy, jump into the deep end, or parachute into a field kind of guy. So, one step at a time just bugs me. But, it’s true even in those examples. When you’re running, it’s not about a big complicated process. It’s about one simple process, one step at a time. When I would coach swimming or running and when I was out on a long run or a swim, I would think about it. One time when I swam a 10k in the Hudson River, I remember being underneath the George Washington Bridge and wanting to quit swimming. I was cold, the river smelled terrible with gasoline, and I thought about how much longer I still had to swim. I focused on stroke at a time. When Lance Armstrong was asked what he thought about when he ride for over 5 hours on his bicycle, he said one pedal stroke at a time. Up and down. It’s very Zen. When you focus on one step at a time, it allows you to be in the present and not get caught up in the distraction of the future or the past. It’s allows you to focus on being here now. 3. Sometimes You Should Quit No, if you’re climbing Mt. Everest and you don’t want to come down, you shouldn’t quit. You should muster up every cell of strength you have to get down to the bottom. That’s the real finish line there. Just google Beck Weathers to see what I mean about this. His story is incredible. But, sometimes you should quit. You should quit when it’s not working. You should quit physical daily habits that are not serving your greater good. Junk food. Not enough sleep. You should quit being friends with people who bring you down or dis-empower you. You should quit your job if you live for the weekends, are miserable during the day, or spend your day complaining about your job with your coworkers. Easier said that done I know. Trust me, I’m terrible at quitting something. I’m a Capricorn and am good at charging up a mountain, but terrible at stopping to reflect and go, should I continue to climb this mountain? For example, I quit racing triathlon a couple of years ago. I had put three dedicated years of training, sometimes over 15 hours a week, and done really well. But I went too far and dipped into overtraining. My mind was in this terrible cycle of thought that went made sense at the time, but now I realize how stupid it was. I had hurt my ankles and should have stopped cycling, but I was afraid to lose the aerobic endurance benefits of the many months of training I had put in to get so fast. That’s how aerobic training works. For a cyclist to ride his bike for 5 hours at a fast speed, it had little to do with that day. It had to do with the many months of slow aerobic training to get there. I remember making the decision to quit when my ankles hurt so bad that I couldn’t even dance at my friend’s wedding. That was an ah-ha moment for me and I realized how stupid I was being. Looking back now, I realize that I should have stopped about a year earlier. Now, I’m able to use that lesson to help guide me on when I should quit things in my life. I also quit podcasting at one point too. I had run this podcast about transforming education and interviewed the movers and shakers who were transforming education all around the world. It was a lot of fun, but barely anyone listened. So, after 20 or so episodes, I called it quits and started up The Traveling Cup podcast which got triple the amount of people listening. So, here’s the point. Don’t always look at quitting as stopping something. Look at it as the ability to Start Something. Start Something That Matters. Time is our greatest value and we only have so many hours in the day. Quit doing those things that zap your energy, so you can start those things that empower you on your life on purpose. Reach out and say hi on Twitter and say Hi :)    @markwguay