Have you ever heard the phrase that quitting is for losers? Or have you heard someone say, you should finish what you’ve started (almost with an undertone of disappointment)? But why SHOULD we do anything that is no longer serving us? For me, it didn’t click until Steven Bartlett mentioned that quitting in different scenarios is actually the wisest decision.

Quitting framework

In his earlier book, he talks about the quitting framework. In life we glamourize starting, but dread quitting. Let’s dive deeper into why it is frowned upon to quit. Mostly, because your environment or society will look at you as a failure. They will think that you are not good enough or didn’t have enough skills, guts to finish that task. So this fear of finishing what you started is founded on the perception and opinions of others.

Let’s look at a simple example. Let’s say that you bought a book that you thought was gonna be really inspiring. You read the first 50 pages of the book and actually, you have a hard time following the narrative. What do you do? Do you finish reading the book because you started already and you invested money into it? Or do you close your book and maybe donate it to a second-hand shop? The wiser decision here would be to quit reading the book.

To start something new, you have to let go

Whenever you would like to start something new, you need to let go of something else. So quitting something makes sense. I also think that if you truly know yourself and the path you would like to follow, it is bold to quit something. You’re making a statement that says: “This activity/ relationship/ task is no longer in line with who I am and trying to become.

Is it really difficult or is it not serving you?

Now I’m not saying that you should quit something right the second it gets difficult. Through the quitting framework, you should ask yourself a couple of questions. Is the hardship worth the rewards? But if the hardship isn’t worth the reward it’s best to quit because then it becomes hard and meaningless. The other question is: “Do you believe you can make it not suck?” For example, in a relationship. The second question: “Is the effort that it would take, worth the rewards?”

Well, there you have it. A simple framework to decide if things are still serving you.

Image: Unsplash by Tungsten Rising