July 2026
“I didn’t give up. I just couldn’t carry on. There’s a difference.” (Unknown author)
I wish I could remember who is credited with the above statement, but it rings very true to me. An analogy that I use is you can have the world’s most powerful car, a 2,300-horsepower Koenigsegg Gemera, but if it runs out of gas, it isn’t going anywhere. It’s a very fitting analogy.
To quit or not to quit, that’s the question. We all know that quitting something is not always a bad thing, such as when you quit your job for a better one or retirement, or you quit smoking. Yet, quitting still carries a very negative connotation in many circumstances. “You’re a quitter!” is something we’ve all heard from parents, coaches, teachers and friends at various times in our lives.
The lesson I’ve always imparted on my daughter is whether quitting should be considered a negative depends a lot on your effort. I stressed to her that no one is good at everything. If you try something and after giving it an honest effort, find that you aren’t good at it, then it’s okay to quit. Of course, putting in an honest effort is subjective, but if we’re really truthful with ourselves, we know whether we gave up too easily. You can tell everyone else whatever you want, but you can’t lie to yourself.
Sometimes we’re just not ready for something due to things like age, physical or mental abilities, or a lack of confidence, but given time and proper mentoring, you will succeed eventually. You try it; you fail; you quit and try again a few years later when you’re better able to complete the task or job.
Many people don’t succeed at something because they aren’t willing to do what’s necessary to accomplish the task or goal, for as long as it’s necessary. It took me nine years of trying to become a police officer. At times it seemed impossible that I would ever achieve my goal, and there were many times that I wanted to give up, resigned to the fact that maybe it just wasn’t meant to be for me. This is where a lack of success can be a big incentive to quit and move on to something else.
There can be a certain degree of pride in accomplishing something that you never thought you could achieve, but sometimes we quit something because we have reached the limit of our knowledge or expertise, or as with the above example about a car, we simply reach the limit of our physical or mental ability. There’s an old saying that some people rise to the level of their own incompetence, so quitting something that you know is beyond your abilities should be seen as a positive thing. Maybe you shouldn’t have taken on the task or job in the first place, but coming to your own conclusion that you need to exit is a lot more honourable and potentially less embarrassing than being unceremoniously shoved out the door.
Sometimes we quit things because we simply aren’t interested in the subject or task. That certainly is a valid reason for quitting something. Many will argue that it’s better to have tried and failed than to never try at all. As Wayne Gretzky once said, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take,” but if the interest isn’t there, it can be a huge obstacle to succeeding.
Regardless, we all have to do things we don’t want to do from time to time in our lives. By pushing us outside our comfort zone, it can often force us to dig deep enough to succeed, even if we vow to never attempt the task again, or we end up discovering the subject or task is interesting after all.
Sometimes you quit is because your abuser has made it clear that things will get a lot worse if you don’t, and you just don’t have the gas in the tank to keep fighting them.
