Ep 112 | Why We Quit & What to Do About It

Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Today I want to talk about why people quit, and I want to use knowledge, information that I've received from one of my mentors one that I've discussed many a time on this podcast, Mack Newton. For those that don't know Mack, look him up. He has talked at my Metrics Masterminds events. He's participated in Built How, another big event that my partners run, and he's just a very special individual. 9th degree black belt, amazing athlete, World Series ring, Super Bowl ring. I mean, the guy is a real-life Forrest Gump. And I've learned an awful lot from Mac over the past 16 years. And I was reviewing some notes and came across some notes around, you know, that he shared around why people quit. Mac's written around this subject quite a bit because he feels strongly, very strongly as a matter of fact, about the lasting negative effects that quitting has on the lives of, of those that quit. Mack will tell you it's very silly to quit early in the game, and it's even sillier to quit late in the game. When children learn to quit early on in their lives, it actually becomes a behavioral response to difficult situations later on in their lives. So becoming a habitual quitter is like setting fire to one's potential, as Max says. And the sad fact, and I hate saying this, but it's true. The sad fact is that most people are quitters. So what can we do to eliminate, to eliminate, or at least minimize this tendency to quit? I mean, have you ever wondered why some individuals hang on against all odds until they turn defeat into victory while others tap out, while others quit. And some people quit. Sometimes it's, it's right. It's, it's in plain sight of the finish line. Is it, is it courage? Is it intestinal fortitude? Just the guts to endure, to get off the canvas, to get off the ground, to stick to something until it's finished? Is it simply just in your genes. Mac will tell you, no, it's none of those things. It's not courage. It's not the guts to endure. It's not genetic. So then the question is, if it's none of those things, then what is the difference between the person who quits and the person who perseveres? Mac's answer to this, two things, optimism and goal setting. Again, people do not quit. Those that do not quit, those that persevere, they're optimistic. So they have the right mentality and they're goal setting. They're goal setters. They have a vision for what they want to accomplish. Think back over your life and you'll likely agree that whenever you let negative thoughts permeate your mind, and you lost the ability to see good things in your future, you probably wanted to give up. Negative and backward thinking causes you to lose your desire to keep working on whatever it is that you wanted. And then you just want to shut it down. Maybe you didn't call it quitting, Mac would say. Maybe you didn't call it quitting, but that's really what it was. Because the circumstances seem to justify your decision to give up, you didn't actually consider this quitting, but it's, but it's quitting. It is. Maybe it was just a small thing, but understand this, the better you get at quitting on small things, soon you're quitting on big things like your career, like your marriage, like the dreams that you cast for yourself. And the results of quitting on these matters can have a disastrous disastrous impact on your life. So no matter what, we've got to find ways to keep the flames of optimism burning brightly in our soul. And we've got to develop the habit of setting meaningful goals in a balanced fashion in your life that will keep your mental focus future-oriented. Again, the key to perseverance is mindset in, you know, in optimism. One of Mac's favorite phrases, attitude is everything. A positive attitude, an optimistic view on the future allows you to persevere and avoid quitting. And goal setting, understanding what you want to achieve, believing in those goals, being passionate about that achievement. These two things, these two things, if you in fact possess them, will decrease the likelihood of you tapping out a substantial amount, if not eliminate it altogether. So the focusing question for you, or maybe a couple focusing questions: where have you quit before? Where in your life, in business and health and relationships, whatever it may be, where have you quit and maybe justified that behavior to feel a bit better? I know I've done this. I mean, I'm just as guilty. Where have you quit? And why do you think that happened? Was it your mindset? Was it a pessimistic view? Was it lack of a clear objective, goals? Odds are it was. Odds are it was. Knowing that, what could you have done differently? How could you have taken different steps so that you persevered and potentially made it to to the finish line and beyond. Follow-up question. What are you looking at right now? What are you experiencing right now where you're actually contemplating? Maybe you're contemplating tapping out. And if you checked your mental attitude, you know, are you, are you optimistic or are you less than optimistic? And if you check your goals, do you have a vision for the future that you're passionate about or are they lacking? Is there a disconnect there? And then is that potentially why you're considering not finishing this thing out? Just something to contemplate. I think most of us, we do not want to quit, but there's a system. There are models to avoiding the desire to tap out. And I encourage everybody today in the spirit of the No Days Off movement to dig a little deeper. Reflect a bit more and take some action steps around avoiding quitting so that we can, we could bust through that finish line and achieve our goals and do so in a rather optimistic manner. That's all we have for you today, the No Days Off podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.