Have you ever started a project or activity, spent hours on it and just wanted to give up? Maybe you wanted to quit forever or perhaps you wanted to retreat and reassess before getting back to the task?
That happened to me right before we went on vacation.
My wife had warned me repeatedly not to injure myself prior to vacation. With her loving thoughts in my ear, I decided to ride my bike around a nearby lake. The entire loop is nine miles and is quite picturesque.
One mile into my ride, I noticed that my rear tire was going flat. That’s not a big deal, except that my patch kit was empty and my spare tube was already on the bike. Full of regret, I turned around and tried to get back to the car before the tire was completely flat.
On the way back, my shoelace got caught in the bike’s sprocket and also wrapped around the pedal. I found this out too late and fell off the bike onto the soggy ground.
After a quick check to make sure no one with a video camera had seen me, I got untangled and eventually got back to the car only to discover my iPod stopped working when I fell. I eventually had to reinstall it, lost all my music and had to beg iTunes to let me download my music again.
When I saw the tire going flat, I regretted having to turn around. Quitting is hard for me. But sometimes quitting is the best thing.
Whether your activity is a huge one or an insignificant one, you don’t have to stick with it because of the time (or money) you’ve already put in. That time/money is gone forever. You’re not getting it back.
What you have to gain from quitting is your future time/money. By stopping one venture, you now have the opportunity to spend your time/money on something enjoyable rather than something you didn’t like.
I’m going to remember that the next time I’m reading a boring book. I’m not required to finish the book – I can start a new one with no regrets.
Posted on
Mon, June 8, 2009
by Sean Taylor Simpson
filed under