then the craziest thing happened!
Have you ever said,
- “to hell with it!”
- “I can’t do this anymore.”
- “It’s too hard!”
- “Why am I even trying? I’m gonna fail!”
Girl I said all those things and more! I have given up more times than I care to admit. I was constantly starting things and when I did not get the results I wanted, I would outright QUIT! I don’t mean just walk away – I would act as though it never existed! Like the thought never entered my head. I was DONE – DONE! But you know that’s not how it works, right?
I’m going to let you in on a little secret, but you cannot tell anyone. Wanting to quit is NORMAL! Thinking you did is even more normal! Another secret: It’s okay to have the desire to quit. It is even okay to stop for a moment. Everybody does it. You are NOT alone! YOU just cannot stay in that position forever.
Do you know how many times I quit being an ADULT? Like how the heck do you quit being an adult? I don’t know but I have days where I look myself in the mirror and say I am NOT ADULTING today! Sadly, it didn’t last very long. I found out not only could I not no longer be an adult, I had other adults that expected me to be an adult! See I threw in the towel but had to pick it back up and I’m glad I did! Because the craziest revelation came from it!
I learned some valuable lessons:
- Quitting is our final excuse. Yup I said it! I know I lost some of you right there! But quitting is what we do when we cannot find a good enough reason to keep going! Quitting is the result of exhausting all our other excuses. Let’s be honest, waking up to back pain is a great reason not to work out; but not working out the next day because of that pain is NOT! QUITTING! says I’m done even when there is no back pain. Quitting is the excuse that needs no explanation. But it also doesn’t produce the desired results.
- Quitting is grown folk status. We are all grown! We declare it EVERYDAY! I don’t know about you but I was so glad to get out of my momma’s house so I could do whatever I wanted to do. So, now that I am good and grown, no one can tell me what I can and cannot do even quitting. It’s easy to declare a thing over and done. But truth be told, quitting is NOT a requirement or a pre-requisite of being declared grown! In fact, quitting shows just how immature we view ourselves and our abilities. When you decide to push through the excuses and opposition, that’s where the grown status takes root.
- Life is HARD! Okay and what’s your point? Life is hard for everyone at some stage in life. You cannot allow difficulty to keep you from going after what you want. You cannot allow what seems impossible to paralyze you from moving forward. Think about it this way, it’s always hard until you do it! Now after you have completed it and realize it’s not something you want to continue doing, then and only then do you have the option of walking away. Notice I said walking away not QUITTING!
- Failure is a result of quitting. There is NO such thing as failure. You either achieve your goal or learn a new way of doing it. Failure comes from NOT trying! If you are at the bottom of a large mountain and refuse to climb, then you fail! But if you attempt, even if you must keep trying every day until you master it, you have NOT failed! If you quit, you fail. If you fail, you never learn. If you never learn, you never grow. If you never grow, you die. Death is a result of quitting.
- Quitting is a habit. I know what if feels like to quit. I want to know what if feels like to cross the finish line! I had changed my habits. I had to change my mindset. I had to stop allowing quitting to be my norm. I had to want success more than inconsistency.
I’m not going to lie to you. There are still days where I want to quit. I want to lay in my bed in complete silence and darkness but WHY? What will it accomplish? How will it help me? What problem will it solve? The biggest lesson I learned is NO ONE can stop me from achieving my goals but me. NO ONE can cheer harder for me that me. But it requires getting up every day and making an effort to be better than I was the day before. There is NO perfection just opportunities.
If you have ever felt like quitting and can relate to this brick, I need you to do two things 1. Share why you didn’t give up. 2. Share this with someone that needs to know they are not alone and give them a reason to keep going.
Until Next Time,
