Let’s Not Quit

Every single fiber in my body just wanted to quit.
Abandon what I was doing.
Walk away.

It was my Senior Piano Recital in 1975.
I had prepared for that event for years. Thousands of hours of practice.  Scores of pages memorized and polished. I was ready to perform.
But.
I was terrified.
Terrified of messing up. Forgetting.

The recital was held in a beautiful church sanctuary in Crookston, Minnesota. I stood in the pastor’s study behind the altar, listening to my piano teacher introduce me. All I wanted to do was walk down the fire escape from that office and leave it all behind.
My fear was consuming me.

Another time where I can still feel the I want to quit feeling in my gut is a bit less dramatic.
To complete my Phy.Ed. credit in college, I signed up to lose weight by exercising. My grade depended on the number of pounds I lost. {Good grief. Can I just say. That was just so wrong on so many levels.}
I ran around and around and around the inside track of the college gym and hated every moment. With every step, I told myself to just quit. Stop running and just walk away.
It wasn’t fear. It was simply too much work.

In the years since, there have been other times that I’d like to quit.
Quitting things like my commitment to…
…walk and exercise…
…write consistently…
…prepare healthy food…
…turn off the TV…
…walk with others through tough times…

I didn’t quit at my piano recital, and I didn’t quit running around the college track.
I’m so glad I just kept going.
But I have quit some of these other commitments throughout the years.
I wish I would have made different decisions then…my life would be different now.

It takes work to keep our commitments, doesn’t it?

It’s in that work that we write our stories. We write what we want our lives to look like.
The journey of continuing to say Yes instead of I’m done is where we develop character.
And that’s when we become the person we want to be.

In almost every situation where quitting is the easy choice, no one else can do the work for us.
We quit, and we don’t get healthier. Relationships suffer. Accomplishments are missed. Discouragement sets in. No one else has the power to change our physical health, nurture our relationships, meet our goals, or adjust our attitude.
We have complete control over our choices. And we have full responsibility for the results.

If you’re hearing that little voice saying, It’s OK to quit…you’ve done enough…you deserve a break…it’s too hard…it really isn’t going to matter…
Will you join me in shutting that little voice down?

Let’s not quit.
Let’s instead refocus. Ask for help or advice for the work in front of us. Ask a friend to talk us through the tough moments. Take a nap. Take a deep breath. Pause.
Reset. Renew the commitment.

Let’s be the people who keep our commitments. Who change our lives. Who stretch and grow and develop into the people we know we can become.

We are becoming…now is not the time to give up.
Let’s not quit.

 

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