Quitters often get a bad rap.
You've probably heard this advice: "Whatever you do, never give up. Don't be a quitter."
But you've probably also heard the advice, "Find what you love to do. Pursue your passions."
How can anyone possibly do both of those things simultaneously?
We're conditioned to think that the only way to succeed, the only way to get ahead and achieve is to refuse to quit no matter what happens. We're taught that success will come if we just keep going.
But if you follow that advice all the time, how are you supposed to find what you love to do? It doesn't work. And that's why a lot of the happiest, most successful people have quitting in their history.
I'd like to propose that not all quitters are created equal. There are good quitters and bad quitters.
If you get one low grade on a math test and refuse to try anymore, you're a bad quitter. You're giving up because something got difficult, and nobody who succeeds in life regularly gives up as soon as something gets challenging. If you love being on the volleyball team but quit just because you didn't get picked as the starting setter, maybe you should have stayed and worked harder? And if you quit your part time job just because you don't like the way your boss gets mad when you show up late, you really have some lessons to learn about the way the work world functions.
But there are also good quitters.
Good quitters quit the right things at the right times. They can recognize when something they're involved in isn't bringing them any happiness or fulfillment. They can sense when an activity, a job, a project, or a relationship isn't going anyplace successful or productive. They'd rather spend their time on something with more potential. So they quit and move on. And they don't beat themselves up about it.
One of our former Collegewise students was a standout football player at his high school. But he quit right before the start of his junior year. Football wasn't making him happy. In fact, it was making him miserable. And he had been grinding through it just because he didn't want to be a quitter.
But as he told us, he came to the realization that he simply longer wanted to do something in which he was regularly "congratulated for trying to take someone's head off." He wanted to be doing other things that he thought would make him happier. So he quit, joined a steel drum band at his high school, and started volunteering at his church.
He went on to attend and graduate from Notre Dame. They didn't mind him being a (good) quitter.
Here's the most important characteristic that distinguishes good quitters from bad quitters; bad quitters want to quit so just they can stop doing something. Good quitters want the opportunity to do something else, something better for them, something they really want to throw themselves into, something that might even be harder.
For good quitters, it's not about getting more time to sleep or watch TV. They quit because they've got bigger goals, not smaller ones.
Quitters never win? I don't buy that. Bad quitters might never win. Good quitters win all the time.
So don't be afraid to quit. Be afraid of being a bad quitter.