It's a common sentiment that you should never quit.
We tell each other and ourselves to not be a quitter and that a quitter never wins and
a winner never quits.
But is this really the truth?
Stay tuned and find out.
What's going on guys!
J from MedSchoolInsiders.com.
With any ambition in life, there will be challenges and roadblocks in your way.
Most of the time the answer is to stick with it, endure, practice discipline and grind
it out until the very end.
That's where the stigma of quitting comes from.
But in some instances, the best option is actually to quit, to re-examine, to redirect
and start anew.
Being gritty, which means maintaining both high levels of passion and persistence is
only healthy when you are controlling the passion rather than letting it control you.
The point at which it significantly hinders other important aspects of your life is when
you really need to sit down and ask yourself whether or not you should stick with it.
It's easy to let the sunk cost fallacy lead you astray.
The sunk cost fallacy states that our decisions are tainted by emotional investments that
we accumulate.
Therefore, the more we invest in something, the harder it becomes to abandon it.
Just because you have invested a great deal of time, effort and resources into something
does not mean that it will necessarily work out.
Hanging on to unrealistic or harmful goals often perpetuated by emotions and the sunk
cost fallacy leads to misery and missed opportunities.
Many of us invest years in pursuing unsatisfying or unrealistic choices because we are afraid
to be truly honest with ourselves and when we realize it is too late, we have a midlife
crisis and go buy a fancy sports car.
Saying winners never quit is a blatant lie, plain and simple.
The first step in knowing whether or not to quit or to persist is to know yourself.
Are you the type of person that easily quit something or are you the type of person that
has a track record of sticking with something longer than you really should?
To be honest, most of us fall into the first basket which is that we easily quit something
in response to resistance.
In times like this, it's important to just give it a chance.
If you just started a new job or a new school, don't let that adjustment period and associated
stressors get you off-track.
Some of the best and most effective learning occurs when you struggle, deal with an obstacle
and learn how to overcome it.
There's a fine line between struggling and learning a great deal versus struggling and
giving up or feeling like you just want to quit.
The next time you are struggling and want to quit, ask yourself these following questions:
first, if I knew what I knew now, would I still pursue this project or goal or what
I do something entirely different?
If your answer is "hell no" or "what in the world was I thinking?" then your next question
should be "why am I still doing this?".
It's often due to sunk costs and over valuing what you have done due to an emotional connection
that you may not be acutely aware of.
The endowment effect describes that we ascribe more value to things merely because we own
them.
Now, the second question to ask yourself is "do I still believe in the vision?".
If the vision still gets you excited, if you still get giddy thinking of helping sick children
in the hospital, if you believe that what you're working towards will help you truly
make a difference, if you can't imagine doing anything else other than achieving this singular
goal, then do not give up.
This is your time of being tested.
As Seth Godin describes in his book, you're experiencing the dip.
Now the premise of Seth Godin book again titled The Dip is the following; things that are
scarce are more valuable.
To create something valuable is difficult; otherwise it would not be scarce.
Lots of people start a project, hit the dip and then quit.
But the dip is often your time of being tested.
We all know how millions flock to the gym in January as part of their new year's resolutions.
How many are still there in the fall?
Those who endured the dip are reaping the rewards of better health and a better physique.
At my undergrad, a few thousand students were pre-med in their freshman year.
At graduation, only a couple actually applied to medical school.
Those who endured the rigors and pass through the dip were the ones who moved on to the
next stage in their medical training.
Deciding that you will not quit does not mean to just "try harder" or "endure" or "suck
it up".
Deciding not to quit means that you were just pushed to the brink and you decided to come
back and work on this goal of yours.
Clearly, something is not working for you to have been pushed to that point in the first
place.
So sit down and figure out how can you be more resourceful, more efficient, more resilient
so that you don't get pushed to that extreme again.
Are you being inefficient at studying?
Are you unable to get proper sleep and does that negatively affect multiple aspects of
your life?
Is your energy low because you don't eat healthfully and you aren't prioritizing exercise?
Persistence alone does not guarantee success.
To differentiate between when something is a dip or a dead end, it often helps to look
back at your progress.
If you see that your grades are improving or that you are getting stronger in the gym
or that your body fat is decreasing, then that means you're headed in the right direction.
If you are not progressing how you should, then re-evaluate your situation.
That does not mean drop everything and go sulk in the corner.
Find ways to improve your current methods.
Several small tweaks can result in a drastic change in results.
We should be gritty but not stupid.
Don't give up too easily but at the same time don't just hold on because you've already
put in a lot of effort.
Be willing to adapt and you will be successful.
These are tough and scary decisions to make but remember that there is no shame in quitting.
There's actually a great deal of virtue in making a logical and honest choice.
It's not giving up, it's moving on.
All right guys, that is it for this video.
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