When To Quit

Over the past several weeks, there has been a distinctive theme in many of my conversations: quitting.

Not the type of quitting where you chuck caution to the wind, suddenly exit and blow up the bridge behind you, the type of quitting, where you say no to the excellent, to the exciting, to the work in order to rest.

For many decades, I have been a person who chronically runs on empty.?

I cannot tell you how many times I have rolled into the gas station as the countdown of miles clicked over to 0. One time, I actually drove on zero for what felt like an unreasonably long time, and I was worried that I would have to call a tow truck to bail me out of my own inability to stop in time for gas.

Of course, I see the fuel click down, I hear the ding of the warning when I get on the final 1/8th of a tank and I see the little flashing red warning light staring me in the face but time and time again, I’ve pushed my car right to the brink.

You see, the truth is that you bring all of who you are to everything that you do.?

Whether you like it or not, the one inescapable, reliable, predictable factor in every single thing that you do, every behavior that you exhibit, every habit that you continue, is you.

And I’m an overachiever.

If something can be done to 2000%, it takes every ounce of my self-control and restraint to do it only to 100% – especially when it’s new and exciting.

I only recently realized that I don’t only habitually drive on E, I live on E too.? And, with that awareness came the resolve to change that habit!? So, I told my business partner about it.? I needed him to know that, when I get into a project, or when my brain is tickled, or when I see huge potential in something, I will run myself right into the ground to chase it, if I’m not mindful about rest.

He responded by comparing how I work to how high-performance athletes’ work. “You don’t play the Super Bowl and then play the Super Bowl the very next day. That’s not how it works. If you play at peak performance and then neglect to rest your body, you suffer injuries and will ruin your career. Any high performance individual needs to rest. You cannot run at 2000% indefinitely.” He told me.

He followed up that conversation by putting a block scheduling planning meeting on my calendar for the very following week.

Many of my clients, my friends, a large swath of the people in my circle are high-achievers, top performers, and they, just as I, need to hear the message to rest.

Rest is not for the weak.

Rest is not something that you have to earn in order to deserve.

Rest allows your body, your mind, even your spirit, to re-organize, recollect, renew and, from a place or refresh, the most incredible things can blossom.??