The fine art of giving up

How to know when to quit and when to keep going.

Yann Girard
Aug 23, 2017 · 5 min read

I’ve given up so many times I don’t even remember anymore.

And every single time I’ve missed that point when I should have given up.

Relationships.

Businesses.

Friendships.

Writing.

Everything.

I should have given up and packed my things a lot earlier.

Every single time.

But the truth is giving up is hard.

Knowing when to give up and when to keep pushing is probably the hardest thing out there.

So I don’t really know anything about the fine art of giving up.

I suck at giving up.

Which perfectly qualifies me to write about it.

So here are a few things I’ve used in the past to decide whether to give up or to keep pushing…

# DOING THE WRONG THING

When you’re doing the wrong thing you should give up and move on to something else.

But not in a quit-your-job-immediately kind of way.

But more in a get-as-much-money-out-of-it-as-possible and start-a freedom-fund-first kind of way.

Get ready for it.

Prepare your big escape.

Don’t rush it.

Be smart about it.

Don’t be like me…

So how do you know if you’re doing the wrong thing?

You’ll feel it when you’re doing the wrong thing.

You’ll just know it.

And if you’re now reading this right here and you feel like you don’t know it, then deep down you probably already know it.

If you’re not absolutely and 1000% sure about it, that probably means that you’re doing the wrong thing.

And not the right thing.

Not the thing you should be doing.

Not your thing…

# GETTING SICK

When you’re constantly sick or getting sick then your body wants to send you a message.

It’s probably your body telling you that it’s time to stop.

That it’s not worth it.

That you should be doing something else.

That you should move on.

Health is more important than anything else.

# EATING JUNK FOOD

When you’re constantly eating junk food and drinking unhealthy stuff it’s your body trying to send you another signal.

Your body wants to tell you that something is wrong.

That something is missing.

And whatever is missing, your body wants that feeling to go away.

And because your body doesn’t want to be in pain (just like a drug addict) it’s going to try to fill that void with garbage and tells you to stuff as much garbage into your body as possible so you can feel a little bit better for a while

But after that quick high it will be even worse than before.

It’s a vicious circle.

A circle you need to break out of as fast as you can. The sooner the better…

# DRINKING ALCOHOL

Here’s why most people go out and party like crazy and get drunk on the weekends. And when I say most people I’m really talking about myself.

It’s the same reason why people buy all sorts of crap they don’t really need.

People do it because they tell themselves that they deserve it. That all week long they’ve been doing things they didn’t enjoy doing. Things that didn’t make them happy.

“Screw this. Now is “me time”. Now is the time to be happy and pack all the fun that was missing during the week into a few short hours. Let’s get all the fun and happiness from that week back.”

What people don’t realize is that every time you get drunk, you’re pretty much stealing happiness from the next day. Or the following day. Or just like in my case sometimes from an entire week. Alcohol is a very powerful depressant…

# EVERYTHING

If you’ve done everything you can and it still doesn’t work out it’s probably a good time to move on.

And what I mean by that is that you really tried everything.

And not just the things you can do.

But also the things you can’t do.

If you can’t find someone to do something for you that you don’t know how to do, then try to figure out how to do it yourself.

And if you then still can’t make it work, move on…

# FUN

When it’s just not fun anymore at all, then just quit. Life is too short to be doing things that aren’t fun anymore. But try to remember the last point. And all the other points I already mentioned. And the ones I’m about to mention…

# LEARNING

When you feel like you don’t or can’t learn anything anymore because you’ve already learned everything you possibly could and don’t see how you could progress any further, then just quit and move on to the next thing.

Too many people get stuck in dead end jobs, projects, relationships or whatever because at one point they stopped progressing. Because they stopped learning.

When you’re standing still, when you’re not learning new things anymore for just a few short days, weeks, months or even a few years, then you’ll almost never be able to get unstuck again.

That’s why so many talented and smart people get stuck in life and end up in dead end jobs, projects or relationships.

They’ve missed the point of moving on to the next thing…

# SLEEP

If you don’t sleep enough your mind will always be weak.

And your willpower will be at zero.

And when I say you I’m talking about myself again.

And when your mind is weak you’ll constantly be eating junk food or drinking things that are bad for your health.

And then the whole thing kicks back in again.

Bad sleep. Bad decisions. Bad food choice. Bad sleep. It’s a vicious circle.

But even more importantly and this might be the most important thing, when you start to realize that the things you’re doing don’t really have an impact, that no one really needs what you’re doing, that someone else could easily be doing the exact same thing you’re doing, when you realize that you’re replaceable, then just pack your things and leave.

Because what that means is that you’re not doing what you’re supposed to be doing.

That you’re not doing that one thing you were sent here to be doing.

That one thing only you can do.

It means that you’re not doing your thing.

And you need to do everything you can to be able to do the thing you were sent here to do.

You owe it to yourself.

And the people around you.

You owe it to the entire world.

So how do you find “your thing?”

By going from one thing to the next and following the fine art of giving up.

By following the fine art of giving up until you found it.

And once you found it, you’ll know it.

You’ll feel it.

So if you don’t feel it, you probably haven’t found it yet.

It’s that simple.

But not easy…

This was a part of my new book The Underdogs Guide To Winning When You’ve Failed At Almost Everything. I’ll release the next part tomorrow. It’s also available for pre-order for pay-as-much-as-you-want. You can grab your copy here: https://gum.co/XHyRD


Originally published at yanngirard.typepad.com.

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Yann Girard

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I think, live & breathe here: http://yanngirard.com

Thought Pills

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