Two Types Of Quitting

I saw a post yesterday from someone asking how to reconcile the different messages of 2 quotes.

Both quotes were about Quitting, but they painted 2 different pictures.

The first quote comes from one of the greatest Football coaches of all time.

"Once you learn to quit, it becomes a habit"

-Vince Lombardi

From this perspective, Quitting seems to be REALLY bad.

Do YOU want to become a "Chronic Quitter"?

It has this implied meaning that once you start quitting, you tend to quit more often.

This could mean that your Goals will continue to get further and further out of your reach.

You may end up with nothing at the end of the day, or worse, at the end of your Life.

In fact, I was listening to something from Joe De Sena, Founder of Spartan Races, the other day.

(For those who don't know, I LOVE Spartan Races, having completed a Trifecta every year since 2019, and having finished 2 different Ultras which are 50 kilometers/31 miles with 60+ Obstacles... so far)

Joe was talking about how he learned from Neuroscientists that when we attempt to do something hard but decide to Quit, it leaves a gap in the Brain that makes it less likely for us to do other hard things in the Future.

So, the Neuroscience seems to agree with Lombardi.

Quitting seems to lead to more Quitting.

However, there was the second quote that seemed to say something different from Lombardi, De Sena, and the Neuroscientists.

"Contrary to popular opinion, quitting is for winners. Knowing when to quit, change direction, leave a toxic situation, demand more from life, give up on something that wasn't working and move on, is a very important skill that people who win at life all seem to have."

-Steven Bartlett

There is a lot of truth in this quote as well.

Staying in Toxic Situations will be detrimental in the long run, and should be something we "Quit".

Understanding when to stop something that very clearly isn't working can be healthy.

Even if we take it back to Football, sometimes there are Audibles called (last-second changes to the plan) with only seconds on the clock.

The Audible is "quitting" on the original plan, often due to something that wasn't seen before, but that change can make ALL the difference.

In these different contexts, it seems that Quitting is actually a good thing, something that is consistently done by Winners.

So, which Quote is correct?

Is Quitting Good or Bad?

Well, this is a perfect example of something I pointed out in May of last year - Quotes often only give Surface-Level Understandings.

Quotes fail to get to the deep nuances of Reality.

In this example, Quitting can both be Good OR Bad, depending on the context.

Both Quotes are absolutely correct, but for different reasons because they are talking about 2 different types of Quitting!

The first Quote discusses Quitting on End Goals based on a Perception of Difficulty.

The Truth is that Life is Hard!

If you give up on something because it "seems" Hard, you won't make it far in Life.

All Good Things in Life happen by getting "through" Challenges - Growth, Success, Winning, Flow States, Positive Relationships, etc.

If you do not learn how to push through the feelings of Difficulty in Life, you INDEED are setting yourself up for long-term Failure!

Now, that doesn't mean it's Impossible to overcome, but the more you Quit because something is "difficult", the more it DOES become a Habit.

The thing about Habits is that once they have been created, they are DIFFICULT to remove - again not impossible, but definitely difficult.

If you simply push through that feeling of Difficulty, even if you don't Succeed, you won't create that Bad Habit of Quitting due to Difficulty.

However, the second Quote is talking about a COMPLETELY different type of Quitting!

It is referring to Quitting on Unfavorable Circumstances.

What is Important to understand within this context though is that you are Quitting on the "Circumstance" and not on the Difficult "Goal".

If you are on a road headed to a vacation spot, and see that that the road you are on goes off a cliffside what do you do?

Hopefully, the first thing you do is stop so you don't fall off the cliffside!

If you "Quit" going toward your Vacation because your current road goes off a cliffside, then you never get to go on Vacation!

But you could also just "Quit" the "current" road you are on (the Unfavorable Circumstance) and simply find another road that is going to lead to your death.

Quitting on the Long-Term Goal is not Beneficial.

Quitting on Unfavorable Circumstances in Favor of better paths may be EXTREMELY Beneficial.

The Result of whether Quitting is Good or Bad will depend on the "Type" of Quitting you are talking about.