How To Not Quit

One of the more challenging aspects of my job is having to watch people quit.

I’ve thought about that sentence for quite a while now, in an effort to make it more appealing, and I just cannot seem to find a way.

People quit.

We all quit.

It’s not fun to hear, or to read, or to even think about.

But like it or not, we all start important things all the time, and we have all not finished every single one of those things.

Sure, maybe we have every intention of getting back to it. Or picking back up that diet. Or getting back into that gym. Or reaching out into that tough relationship.

But really, those “intentions” are just rationalized inactions.

And inaction is also an action.

– It’s the action of not doing anything.

Indecision is also a decision.

– It’s the choice of doing nothing.

I know it’s really tough, but in order to prevent it from happening to ourselves and our family and friends more often, we need to talk about it, and we need to understand: It does happen.

So, I thought I’d write out a little list.

We’ll call it: Extremely Practical Advice To Give Ourselves Better Odds of Not Quitting.

Catchy, right?!

Here we go:

• Start with the end process in mind.

  • It’s not a good idea to overly focus on where you want to end up. I’m not saying “Have no idea where you’re headed.” I’m saying you need to understand what it’s going to take for you to get there, and you need to be willing to lean into that process no matter what “progress” feels like. If you don’t know the process you’ll need to follow to get there… FIND A COACH.

• Understand, your timeline is rarely the reality.

  • I mean think about it. Does time EVER work the way you think it does? Days go slow. Years go fast. Some minutes last forever, and the minutes that don’t are the ones you wish would. You don’t understand time, I don’t understand time, no one fully understands time (or our perception of it). If it’s really worth it to you, the timeline shouldn’t matter.

• Don’t get too hyped up in the beginning.

  • I don’t necessarily believe in “burnout.” But I can say, over the years of owning my gym, it seems like the people who are “all about it,” stay the least amount of time. This is fully an assumption, but I believe they honestly enjoy it so much early on, that the second they don’t enjoy it… is the same second they stop coming. You have to understand, no commitment is ALWAYS going to be fun. You have to choose it regardless of how you’re currently feeling about it.

• Get a schedule, and stick to it.

  • Something good happens when people make decisions ahead of time. And when I say “make decisions,” I mean, like actually pick a decision. When the alarm goes off, it’s already been decided: You’re getting up. When the friend asks you about making plans, it’s already decided: You have an appointment, with yourself, at the gym. Set the schedule, stick to the routine. It’ll help tremendously.

• Tune into the positive, and tune out the negative.

  • Please understand, you will never get rid of that negative voice in your head. The one that slows you down, holds you back and keeps you from getting where you want to be. But you CAN learn to listen to it less or ignore it together. Take your thoughts captive, and if you don’t like them, pick better ones. Or put yourself around people who speak the ones you want to have. If your thoughts don’t increase the quality of your life, they don’t belong with you anymore. Reject them, and replace them with the ones you want to have. Do it over and over again until it sticks.

We’ll stop there for today. I truly hope this was helpful.

Give yourself a little grace in the process, but also remember: If it’s really important to you, you should be setting yourself up for success. And there’s no better way to do that than by understanding all of the possible outcomes and producing an environment around yourself that will not only allow you to succeed but also accelerate the process.

Comment, share, or smoke signals me if you want more like this.