Never Quit. Move On

I asked myself a timeless question, “When is it okay to quit?”.

Never! Come on, did you expect me to say anything else? You hear it all the time to never quit, never surrender, never give up! I think persistence is an extremely important quality to have, just like the little engine that could. And persistence, in the face of a challenge, will generate unbelievable fulfillment in your life. But, that’s not the end of it.

While it’s never okay to quit, it is always okay to move on. It’s a very subtle difference and it’s all about how you identify with the act. If you quit then you internalize how you didn’t have what it takes to meet the task. It has a very strong association of guilt and shame built into it. It’s not okay to treat yourself like that, so it’s unacceptable to quit. 

But, if you move on from something, you retain your power. You think through the current situation, evaluate the trade-off, and decide to do what you believe is in your best interest. Of course, you can be disappointed and upset by the fact that you’re moving on from something you care about, you should feel that way, but you don’t need to feel guilty or shameful for it because you cannot change the past. You can only do what you think is the right right thing to do moving forward, which very well could be to move on to something else.

Each one of us has our own tolerance and relationship with that trade-off between persistence and moving on. I firmly believe that it’s important to persist through difficult challenges because the discomfort in it will force you to grow. But, if something feels out of alignment, and you have confident awareness of that, it most definitely is okay to move on to something better suited.