Walking away – When quitting something is the best decision

We view quitting or giving up on a something in a negative light.  (Well, apart from smoking / drinking and other vices!) It’s seen to be a sign of failure or as a weakness.  However what I have found is quite the opposite.  I believe that if something is no longer fulfilling us, be it creatively, professionally, or personally then why we do feel a sense of negativity about wanting to move on from this? You wouldn’t stay in a toxic relationship (I hope) – so why  should we force ourselves to be unhappy in other areas of our lives just because it’s “better than quitting”?

After reading a wonderful book called “The Dip” by Seth Godin, I’d come round to the way of thinking that quitting can be a positive thing if we re-frame why we are doing it.  Until recently however I had not experienced this first hand.

I’ve run a project for some years, it made a little money and didn’t need a lot of work.  Sounds ideal I hear you say!  However I knew it wasn’t sustainable at it’s current level, it either needed a massive injection of time, money and focus, or it was time to move on.  The time that I could gain to do something else I was passionate about was starting to become more appealing than the pocket money coming in on the side.

Something I do believe in very strongly is your reputation and doing things with intention.  I could have just closed the doors on this side hussle and left it at that, but I felt it should be done the right way – to make sure all my customers would be looked after elsewhere.  It seemed that finding someone to take over was the best decision, after all, why should the customers suffer just because of a change of direction by myself.

Of course there was more work in the short term, more than I expected.  Long term however I know i’ve done the right thing and I’m happy that I’ve done it in the right way.

And you know what, It feels great to be a quitter.