I've known quite a few quitters as, I imagine you have, also. Truth be told, I am a quitter. Not just a quitter of bad habits but a quitter of noble and worthy endeavors, as well . . . . .
I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a friend about activities we stopped doing and organizations we joined then later quit to do something else; about people who judged us harshly, fewer who understood, and our own inner struggle with regret and guilt coupled with a sense of freedom.
These are some of the quitters that I know:
. . . a part time staff person in a large church struggled as leadership changed; she stayed for awhile, then created an exit strategy, wondering all the while if leaving her position would cause her to lose valuable friendships;
. . . another friend quit a challenging, well paying job that was demanding, more taxing to his body and soul than he wanted to endure;
. . . a woman helped establish a community service organization and served as an active volunteer for years; as she watched the program head in a direction she could not support, she knew it was time to quit;
. . . a young student quit soccer for a season, missed it, picked it up again and is now a star player.
My conversation with my friend grew hilarious as we proposed creating "Quitters of the World" but we quit the idea quickly realizing that people would join only to quit and even we, the founders of "Quitters" couldn't be counted on to stay for long or even to show up at the meetings that probably would never happen because everybody quit! We laughed and lightened up about being quitters.
Why does quitting feel so onerous? What do we fear when considering quitting? Loss of respect, loss of privilege, of status, of friends, or self worth? Anarchy??? What if everybody quit? Well, what if every body quit doing whatever caused unnecessary activity, harm to self or to another, overtaxing of resources, depletion, exhaustion? What would happen if every body chose instead to do only those things that brought joy, that generated creative solutions, that made love a valuable commodity, vital families and good health the measures of success, cooperation a top priority? What if? What if? . . . . .
Just imagine the impact of a world of thoughtful quitters.
I had a conversation a few weeks ago with a friend about activities we stopped doing and organizations we joined then later quit to do something else; about people who judged us harshly, fewer who understood, and our own inner struggle with regret and guilt coupled with a sense of freedom.
These are some of the quitters that I know:
. . . a part time staff person in a large church struggled as leadership changed; she stayed for awhile, then created an exit strategy, wondering all the while if leaving her position would cause her to lose valuable friendships;
. . . another friend quit a challenging, well paying job that was demanding, more taxing to his body and soul than he wanted to endure;
. . . a woman helped establish a community service organization and served as an active volunteer for years; as she watched the program head in a direction she could not support, she knew it was time to quit;
. . . a young student quit soccer for a season, missed it, picked it up again and is now a star player.
My conversation with my friend grew hilarious as we proposed creating "Quitters of the World" but we quit the idea quickly realizing that people would join only to quit and even we, the founders of "Quitters" couldn't be counted on to stay for long or even to show up at the meetings that probably would never happen because everybody quit! We laughed and lightened up about being quitters.
Why does quitting feel so onerous? What do we fear when considering quitting? Loss of respect, loss of privilege, of status, of friends, or self worth? Anarchy??? What if everybody quit? Well, what if every body quit doing whatever caused unnecessary activity, harm to self or to another, overtaxing of resources, depletion, exhaustion? What would happen if every body chose instead to do only those things that brought joy, that generated creative solutions, that made love a valuable commodity, vital families and good health the measures of success, cooperation a top priority? What if? What if? . . . . .
Just imagine the impact of a world of thoughtful quitters.
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