Stop Wasting Time | When to KEEP Going vs QUIT

Winners give up all the time. Never give up is bad advice. Real winners won't hesitate to walk away from an unsuccessful venture. Master the art of moving on by learning when to quit and when to keep going. Have you heard the one about the athlete who faces obstacle after obstacle, refuses to give up, and finally overcomes the odds in the end to win the gold? It makes for a great movie, but in reality, most people who aspire to become professional athletes fail. It's simple math, really. For someone to win, many others have to lose. Fortunately, when it comes to finding the work you were born to do, you don't usually have to compete against thousands of other people. And if something isn't working, you don't need to keep going. In fact, you probably shouldn't. Real winners give up all the time. Many people who try and try again only to come short of a big victory never really recover. Sometimes even the ones who do make it struggle later with any kind of meaningful second act. The real secret is that selective quitting is a powerful practice. You just need to learn when to give up and when to keep going. You may be familiar with this old adage often attributed to Albert Einstein. The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Einstein was writing that the real danger of going insane or just failing over and over Failure doesn't usually come from doing something new. Rather, the worst failures come from doing something that we've been doing for a while. Most of us are smart enough to realize that if we try something new and it doesn't work, we can't just keep doing the same thing and expect different results. We might try once more, but we'll usually switch up the tactic. Even mice in a maze will learn to adapt and attempt different solutions if they hit the same dead end enough times. When the stakes are low, make changes or give up quickly. Don't waste time on small things, and when the stakes are low, make changes right away. Fight your fear of missing out. While fear of missing out is a very normal and natural human emotion, it can be dangerous if it prevents you from quitting when it's long past time to give up. After all, if you want to be successful, you can't live your life out of fear. Ignore sunk costs as much as possible. It doesn't matter how much you've invested in something, whether time, money, or any other resource. Next time you're at the grocery store and a better line opens up, take it. Use the answers to two questions to guide your decisions. Ask yourself these two basic questions: 1. Is it working? 2. Do you still enjoy it? You don't need to overthink these questions, and you shouldn't sugarcoat the answers. You'll be far more successful in the long term if you're honest with yourself about each of them. Contrary to popular belief, if you want to win, you shouldn't always just keep going. You should regroup and try something totally different. "Winners never quit and quitters never win" is a lie. To win, sometimes you need to find a new game to play. Winners give up all the time.