Quitting Doesn't Mean Failing When It's In Your Own Best Interest
Throughout the course of our lives, we start making bigger and bigger decisions that can ultimately lead to lifelong commitments. These commitments take up both energy and time. They take over our investments and define our memories.
As we grow older with each passing year, every decision we make seems to deem a heavier weight of importance on our course of life.
Soon, decisions about what we want for Christmas from Santa and what we want to do on summer vacation are replaced with choices of where we wish to go to college, what kind of car we want to buy, the profession we want to pursue and whom we want to be with for the rest of our lives.
We can either reach success or failure, depending on the level of satisfaction we attain once a goal is met. But what happens when the goal is met, you are not satisfied with the end result and want nothing more than to quit the responsibility that produced a dime-sized hole in your aspirations?
Does it mean that you’re a failure just because you want to quit the previously-confirmed decision?
Luckily, the answer is a whopping, big, fat “NO.” This world and the all the people in it are continuously changing, readjusting and adapting to external and internal updates.
Who we are today could (and should) be a bit different than who we were two or three years ago. It’s called maturing: a necessary process for all humans to go through in order to move from childhood to adulthood.
Your experiences and perspectives are always changing; therefore. your decisions will also change based on former outcomes of previous endeavors.
Two years ago, you could have been in the position where you’ve never held a real job in corporate America. In the past two years, you secured a well-paying job and gave it 110 percent, but in the end, you left the office feeling unfulfilled and drained of all motivation to move forward.
Six months ago, you may have been single and looking for your Prince Charming. In the course of a half dozen months, you chose a partner who you enjoyed doing activities on the weekend with, but in the end, you found yourself discontent in the connection the two of you shared for several months.
Quitting an unfulfilling job or relationship doesn’t mean you failed. In fact, it could mean just the opposite. The act of quitting is defined by Webster’s Dictionary as an act of "releasing oneself from obligation, charge or penalty."
What if we thought about quitting a job as really releasing ourselves of the obligation to be miserable from clock-in to clock-out. What if we decided to quit a dead-end relationship in efforts to pursue a healthy one?
Quitting a certain responsibility chosen by a previous decision is a healthy way to grow, learn and ultimately succeed.
In order to pour ourselves into our endeavors, relationships and overall self awareness, we must first be filled with the right fuel. If your tank is only half full, perhaps it’s time to drain out the old, regular grade and fill up with premium.
Quitting doesn’t mean failing. It means you’re ready to make a new decision that will erect the building blocks to great success.
Photo Courtesy: We Heart It
