Life lessons
When You Want to Give Up on Your Goals
This is what I do when I’m on the verge of giving up
I woke up one morning and said, “Fuck this shit.”
What’s the point of all this? You’re born, you suffer, and you die. You set goals and work so hard on them, but it’s so damn hard to keep up. It’s like you’re wasting your time because nothing’s coming out of it.
Most days, I do feel inspired. Those are the days I’m most productive and it feels like I’ve been possessed by a demon. All I want to do is write — I don’t care about anything else. Even when I’m uninspired, I still push myself to wake up every day and write. I’m still productive regardless.
Some days, however, no matter how hard I try, I just don’t want to write anymore. All I want to do is give up. The old me would have given up easily long ago. But these days, I have a different approach when this feeling comes up.
Remember it’s a normal part of life
We want to feel happy all the time but this isn’t realistic at all. I mean, yeah, we can be content and learn to love and accept ourselves. However, that doesn’t mean that we’ll never feel emotions other than happiness throughout our lives.
The desire to give up is not exempt from it. No matter how much you love doing something, there may come a time you might not want to do it. You just don’t feel like it.
You work so hard on your goals but then sometimes it feels like it’s not going anywhere. So, as logical as you are, you say to yourself that maybe you should give up.
Never listen to that voice. It’s a scam.
It’s normal to feel that way sometimes.
I’ve come to learn that this is part of life. Whenever I have those feelings, I remind myself that it’s only temporary. I don’t force myself to do anything. If I don’t want to write, I don’t write. I let those dark days play out. But as they do, I tell myself that it shall pass. It’s not permanent. It’s part of life.
I will be fine. And yes, in no time, I get right back to writing. Hell, I don’t even feel right when I don’t write for so long.
Remember your goals
Sometimes, however, the feeling of giving up takes too long to go away.
Just recently, I went a whole week without writing. It wasn’t that I had writer’s block. I don’t believe in writer’s block. I always have something to write. I just didn’t want to do it. I was exhausted by the whole thing. You know, like it was pointless. Quitting felt easier, to be honest.
And I almost quit. But, one thing stopped me.
My goals.
When a deep sense of depression overwhelms me, and all I want to do is give up, I remember my goals.
I’ve written down my goals and crafted a detailed strategy for accomplishing them. Anytime I’m close to giving up, I just go back and read them. At the top of my list is to become a full-time writer within five years. I can’t possibly do that if I give up now.
I have to endure no matter what, and someday, it will pay off. This is what I say to myself.
Slowly, the fire ignites within me and I regain my fervor to make my dreams a reality.
What’s the worst that could happen if you give up?
Although my goals usually help me to push away thoughts of giving up, sometimes it just doesn’t work.
There have been days when I was so numb to everything that my goals didn’t even excite me anymore. Why was I trying so hard? It would be much easier to quit.
At this point, only one thing is powerful enough to snap me back to reality.
My entire future replays before my eyes like a lifetime movie, and it’s the worst kind of future I can possibly imagine.
In my vision, I see myself miserable and full of regret for never giving it my all in working toward my goal. I’m living a life of resentment and I completely hate myself and the world.
This vision of my future self scares the shit out of me.
Even today, I still regret the fact that I didn’t start working on my dreams much earlier. The fear of failure plus a ton of bad habits made me give up on them for a long time. I’m a much better person now, but occasionally, I remember how miserable I had been at the time and I hate it.
If I give up today, how will I feel in the next twenty years? It will be the worst day of my life, I’m sure.
Once I remind myself that this is the future awaiting me, all thoughts of giving up just evaporate from my mind and I go right back to working on making my future better.
As I write this, I was almost about to give up writing altogether. But then I remembered a gloomy future in which I just went through life with no purpose. It was rather terrifying. So yeah, I wrote this to remind myself to keep going.
Note to self: Never give up.
I know it’s harder said than done. But in the long run, we’re better off pursuing our goals than giving up on them.
The journey to reaching your goals is what life is all about. It makes you stronger, smarter, and an all-around better person.
Give it your all. Pursue your dreams. Work on your goals. Embrace all the suckage of life. Rest when you’re exhausted. Cry, laugh, feel all the emotions. But don’t give up. Ever.
Someday, it will all pay off. And you’ll look back at this day and be grateful to yourself that you kept going.
Even if you don’t attain the success you want in the future, you’ll never regret it. After all, you did give it your all.
So keep going. I believe in you. Now believe in you.
