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Happy Tuesday!
Starting something new is exciting and energizing. You envision a better version of the future and it inspires you to take on a new challenge.
You start learning a new language or pick up a new instrument. You launch a new project or business, begin a new job or relationship.
In the beginning, progress is quick. You rapidly advance through the beginner stages and you can see change almost immediately. It's inspiring and motivating and this initial momentum helps you push through the difficulties.
Then after a few months or years the novelty fades a bit and your progress starts to slow. As you cross the threshold of the beginner you begin to discover all the things you didn't know you didn't know. You're now sophisticated enough to realize how much of a beginner you actually are and the true complexity and challenge starts to become apparent.
You realize how much work there is to do and how far you need to go and you start to wonder, "is it really worth it?"
It may not be.
But how do you know?
Knowing when to quit and when to persevere is without a doubt one of life's greatest meta skills.
I would not consider myself to be particularly skilled at quitting but a few months ago I read a brilliant little book by Seth Godin called The Dip which has been hugely influential in helping me think about this question.
Godin explains how most success follows a difficult period of varying length and magnitude.
There are huge upsides to sticking with something difficult simply because so many other people will not. If you can persevere through the dip then you will have created something of value because it is scarce.
Therefore the question you need to be asking yourself is are you willing to work through the dip past the point of mediocrity to get to a place of excellence?
If not, then you're better of quitting early before you waste any effort.
In these situations, quitting is actually strategic. Quitting is efficient because you can reallocate efforts towards other areas where you ARE willing to persevere.
It only makes sense to start when you know you can survive the dip.
Of course, it would be naive to think that simply by continuing to dump effort into any endeavor will result in eventual success. Sometimes there is no dip at all and instead you're just in a cul-de-sac going round and round.
These scenarios sometimes look like dead-end jobs or relationships. In these situations quitting can be very hard because of
Quitting in a cul-de-sac requires you to acknowledge waste and this can be very painful. Doing nothing only makes the situation worse and quitting harder.
The existence of cul-de-sacs is somewhat problematic because it's very possible that you may think you're persevering through a dip when really you're just wasting your effort.
In the cases where it's obvious that you're in a cul-de-sac and going nowhere, the right course of action is simple (although not easy). Quit your job, sunset the project, leave the relationship etc.
In the far more nefarious cases where it's unclear Godin offers some helpful suggestions worth considering.
It begins with understanding why you're quitting. Here are a couple reasons NOT to quit:
Here are a couple reasons FOR quitting:
This last bullet can be very useful if, at the start of the endeavor, you are uncertain how big the dip actually is. Defining the conditions of quitting BEFORE you start can help you make a decision down the road.
All of this advice is very nice in theory but in practice is extremely difficult. Discerning between dips and cul-de-sacs is not easy. Persevering through dips is not easy. Quitting in cul-de-sacs is not easy.
But ...
Anything worth doing is worth doing well and excellence is something we all strive for. Whether in our jobs, our passions, and our relationships.
I highly recommend Godin's book if you haven't read it already. It's like 60 pages and packed with wisdom.
Have a great week!
Cheers,
Nick