4 Signs Of A Quitter — Are You One? (2024)

It’s so easy to give up. Moreover, it’s human.

But then the question largely remains do you want to be in the belt of the 95% of the general population or are you striving for the 5%?

Every time you have started something and quit you have lost an internal battle.

You’ve lost a bit of accountability.

You’ve lost a touch of authenticity.

You’ve lost a bit of commitment.

It’s all your doing. All to yourself.

I’ve quit too. Innumerable tasks that matter to me. (A bit more on that later).

So I started thinking about noticeable signs that make you a quitter and what you can do about them.

1. Giving In To Resistance

I call it the Big Bad R.

It comes bubbling when you are faced with a challenge in the space that you’ve chosen to work on.

It’s here to stop you.

It’s here to create your next excuse.

It’s going to cause a lot of self-damage.

Here’s What You Can Do About It

You’ve got to have the willpower to surge ahead in these tasks without being self-critical.

As the late Joseph Kennedy said-

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

For instance, many of us here on this platform wish to be a successful writer. I guess we’ve faced resistance a lot more times than we like. So if you are reading this content and still have the lingering hope of being a writer sit yourself down when you have time, open a laptop and just type. (If this is the step you are resisting, you are doomed. In this case, writing isn’t for you.)

2. Overthinking

You are thinking too much about your decision to venture into something new after you have made the move.

You must always exercise the pros and cons of a situation before jumping right in, but after you have made the call, learn to stick with it.

It’s going to be a rocky start. Nobody has it easy.

It’s going to be a queasy feeling and it’s surely going to make you want to quit.

Here’s What You Can Do About It

In the words of Indra Nooyi former CEO of PepsiCo-

The seven characteristics of a great leader: Vision.Persistence.Persuasion.Listening. Learning.Collaborating.Humility. Probably no single individual embodies all these virtues. I know I don’t. But anyone who possesses these seven qualities will be a formidable leader.

Persistence.

There’s your answer.

If it helps assign your project with a deadline. Till then don’t overthink, only do.

Gaur Gopal Das an Indian monk in his debut novel ‘Life’s Amazing Secrets’ says-

Watch your thoughts they become your words. Watch your words they become your actions. Watch your actions they become your habits. Watch your habits they define your character. And watch your character for it will define your destiny.

3. Getting Sucked Into Others Stories

You are who you spend most of your time with.

The other person might not know better about a decision that you wish to make.

Wrong advice is poison. The problem is you are not going to know that because it’s been given to you by your nearest and dearest one.

I just sampled this recently when a close friend announced in a group conversation-

‘Arjun is the most successful among us as he is from an Ivy League school.’

The person Arjun in this context was not around. My friend was trying to convince the others around how being from a reputed school makes you the most successful.

We had a few friends debating whether to work or to go to school.

So you see how this idea can sit in someone's subconscious and direct him or her to make decisions that are drastic.

Here’s What You Can Do About It

Filter. Filter. Filter.

Your friends. Your thoughts.

I find this incredibly hard to do. But I know it’s necessary.

As Robin Sharma says,

You are the average of the five people you most hang out with

4. You Crave Instant Gratification

It’s true now more than ever that we want everything at the snap of our fingers.

We want to succeed, but we want it quickly. No wait time.

Technology that largely prevails our environment today subjects us to instantly getting everything we want. (Thank you Amazon!)

Just like you can discard your shopping basket at any time, you are finding it easier to discard your goals.

But what Amazon can’t ship to you is the feeling of success in achieving your goals.

As Simon Sinek rightly pointed out,

What most millennials don’t understand is that job satisfaction and strength of relationships there ain’t no app for that. It’s hard work.

Heres What You Can Do About It

Treat your time with respect.

Know that anything significant in your life will take time to achieve.

There’s no magic formula to that. Yet.

Successful writers on this platform took 3–4 years before they could get a substantial audience base and monetize their writing.

Have patience. You have it. You are wired to believe that it’s not in your possession.

This endless game of quitting started for me when I was in high school and I decided to give up physics out of frustration.

The constant tug and pull of classes and college left me in a rut.

Unenthused without much thought I quit.

It felt so easy at the time.

And that’s when I started quitting a lot many things without identifying whether the idea to pursue mattered to me or not.

Driving, learning a new language, design to name a few.

Your life is much more than only your place of work. You will want to indulge in many ideas. The key really is sticking to a few and seeing them through till the very end with monomaniacal focus.