Have you ever said the words "I quit" and wished you could take them back?
Since there’s no such thing as a time machine (yet), this mistake can cost you a lot.
Granted, in the heat of the moment, you may be emotionally charged and therefore unable to see beyond the next three minutes, which is what makes this whole quitting thing so risky.
A week ago, while doing my regular 5:30 a.m. run, I was listening to "Impact Theory" hosted by Tom Bilyeu.
The episode was appropriately titled “What you need to be the best” and Nastia Liukin, a five-time Olympic medalist, was sharing her thoughts on her gymnastics career.
As I was soaking in all the fascinating insights coming through my earbuds, I found myself turning up the volume at 19:50 when I heard her recalling there were days when she would tell her mom she wanted to quit.
"She would always say, 'That’s totally fine. You can quit, but not today.’ She would make me go back to the gym the next day and the next day until I had at least one good day. Then she’d say, 'OK, now you can quit, we’ll enroll you back in the public school and find another activity you want to do.’ I would always be like, 'I don’t know what you’re talking about, I never said I wanted to quit.”- Nastia Liukin
It’s generally not the good days you have to worry about when you take on a long-term commitment.
The good days are easy.
The bad days are the days that you need to mentally prepare for.
It’s the bad days that will trip you up and make you question why you’re even doing all of this.
It’s OK to quit if you’re quitting on a good day.
This is truly, from the bottom of my heart, a brilliant piece of advice.
You can use it as a kind of rule of thumb.
You want to be a writer, a business owner or create something of your own?
It’s hard work.
(People often don’t know how hard it is to work hard and what that actually means.)
If you want to quit something on a good day, you’re most probably right.
If you want to quit something on a bad day, well, wait until it’s not a bad day and then make that decision.
There’s always tomorrow.
This might not work, sure, but who better than you to try?
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