How To Stop Being A Quitter

How to know if you are a quitter

A quitter is someone who will give up for little to no reason and lack the motivation to persevere despite setbacks. A quitter expends little effort to reach their objectives compared to a more resilient individual who is more likely to continue despite any obstacles.

Ways to stop being a quitter

If you feel that you are a quitter, this could be holding you back from achieving your goals and reaching your full potential. If you have a habit of quitting easily and quickly then try these tips to control your quitting nature.

1. Accept setbacks

Have you ever heard of someone getting far in life without a single setback? If your answer to that question is yes, ask that person a lot of open-ended questions to learn from them because they are in a very exclusive group. Most people who have achieved great things incurred a setback(s) in some form. You shouldn’t have an expectation of perfection in life because that isn’t guaranteed.

Sometimes things don’t go your way and you should very much accept that. Even before going into a situation where you could quit you should be aware of the fact that setbacks are possible and likely. They are for just about anyone. If you are conscious of this and you realize this is possible you can increase the chances you will be able to work through them. After all, you would know they’re likely going to pop up.

2. Brainstorm ways you might fail and solutions to these

Say for a moment you are about to start a small project and you know exactly what you plan to do and what outcome you want to achieve. What you should also do is think of ways you might fail. It is not negative thinking to pre-plan. Don’t do this just to freak yourself out. The goal here is to be able to identify ways in which failures or setbacks are possible so they can be accounted for. Once you know where you might encounter obstacles, find ways that you will deal with these. This way if you do encounter something you are prepared for you will easily be able to overcome it and carry on.

3. Understand your reasons for quitting

When do you quit most often? What pushes you to quit in these situations? Are there any patterns or trends where you quit? These questions will help you identify what makes you susceptible to quitting. Once that’s done you can review these situations and think of ways you can persevere through them. Maybe you can come up with ways to keep yourself going whenever these situations arise or appear close to arising –for example, stopping for a moment and reminding yourself to keep going.

4. Build resilience

Setbacks are to be expected, that’s clear. But what should not happen is you quitting whenever they present themselves. For this reason, you must build resilience to setbacks. This doesn’t mean eliminating them from happening, it means having the ability to continue when they do. Try putting yourself in low-stakes situations where you might fail. Then find ways to keep going if you do fail or ways to keep going if you lose your patience. Try, for example, a difficult video game (those tend to frustrate people). Max out your tolerance to failure by persisting in whatever activity you might decide on.

5. Change how you think

If you are prone to quitting, this is likely due to your thought patterns. You might have an all-or-nothing mentality where you view things in terms of either success or failure. You might have a set of ideals and in the event your circumstances don’t match those ideals you feel compelled to quit. Your thoughts can take you on a destructive mental journey if they get out of control. What you ought to do here is counter these thoughts and learn ways to change distorted thinking patterns so you are no longer as susceptible to quitting. Try setting more realistic ideals and goals. Make an effort to tame your mind during times of chaos and teach yourself to feel more in control and think clearly.

6. Focus on the journey, not just the destination

One of the issues with all-or-nothing thinking is it makes you feel like you ought to think of things in terms of either success or failure. So if you’re controlled by this mentality you may not care very much for the experience. You’re too pre-occupied with the result.

Take for example if you were playing a game of skill and you started losing. You might think you are playing just for either the win or the loss. But instead you could just play for enjoyment. You could play just to learn and better your skills –pick up on some strategies. Even if you know you are about to lose and you have a few minutes of spare time, don’t quit –try to gain an entertaining experience.

The point is you do not have to do everything just to reach a goal you want. Participation in itself can be rewarding. Enjoying the path to the destination, however it goes, can be a win on its own.