When should you quit? And when should you stick?

This is the second book from Seth Godin that I read after The Meatball Sundae. This time it shared about whether we should quit or not. It’s great if we can become whoever we want, but to be the best at something, we need to quit something.

I love to start new projects, throwing in ideas and creativity. And yes, every new project starts exciting and fun, or beginners’ luck as Paulo Coelho put it in The Alchemist. But that’s not for long, eventually you have to face the real things, the difficult things. It comes down to the question whether it’s the Dip, problems worth fighting for to excel at something, or Cul-de-Sac, something that will not get any better, no matter how hard you try.

You must have ever heard the saying that “Winners never quit”, but it was wrong! Seth Godin said…

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons.
~Seth Godin

In fact, successful people are seeking for The Dip, because it’s one thing that is able to separate them from the rest.

Seth Godin shared the 3 important questions that you need to do before quitting:

1. Am I panicking?
   Best quitters, according to Seth Godin, are the ones who decide in advance when they want to quit. It’s not when the situation turns sour.
2. Who am I trying to influence?
   Is it a single person, or market? Single person has its own personal agenda and single worldview. Sometimes it’s not so valuable wasting your time influencing a single person. The wall gets higher as you make the efforts. Influencing market is another story, it’s like a hill. The more you progress, the higher you are, and you will see that things get easier. Market will notice you and you can do something about it.
   
3. What sort of measurable progress am I making?
   Sometimes quitting is painful, that’s why we stick with it. And we forgot to measure something more important; which is progress. It’s not about money or promotion, but have you been challenged with new milestones? It’s the sign that you made a progress; you will be surfaced with milestones on the area that previously you found none.

Seth Godin ended his book with a remarkable quote:

All our successes are the same. All our failures, too.
We succeed when we do something remarkable.
We fail when we give up too soon.
We succeed when we are the best in the world at what we do.
We fail when we get distracted by tasks we don’t have the guts to quit.
~Seth Godin

Put it into actions:

• Think of all the commitments you have right now, which ones do you think as beating around the bush? Which ones do you think as the dip to be conquered?
• Think of all the commitments you made, what are the conditions that will make you quitting? Decide in advance!
• Seek a dip and excel in it! Find yourself progressing towards that. Set a goal and milestones to achieve. Daily, weekly, monthly?.

Related article:

• What Everybody Ought to Know About Quitting – Life Evolver