How to Remove “Quit” From Your Vocabulary & Your Life

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Setting goals and achieving them is a powerful human experience. While it is important to set goals and have something to strive for, sometimes it is necessary to take a step back and analyze your specific desire. When obstacles arise and emotions get involved, they can leave you feeling defeated, vulnerable and offbeat. Every once in a while, we face situations that give us a choice to either give up (quitting) or let go (surrendering). Finding which path to take is difficult and the choice can either leave you feeling beaten down or empowered.

The major difference in surrendering vs. quitting is when you surrender, you have faith. Having faith means that you are allowing a higher power to guide you. You trust that you are in good hands and that you are given things at the correct time. Try surrendering on your mat. Accept that your muscles aren’t as flexible as someone next to you. When we detach ourselves from outcomes, we have less desire-driven attachment, which gives the ego less control over you. The ego is telling us we need these superficial gains, but deep down, these gains don’t serve us at all.

Quitting is a defeating experience that leaves you feeling like the world is against you. Surrendering is relinquishing the false notion of the ego’s power and trusting the true power of the Universe. Sometimes it takes greater strength to let go. Accept the answer you get from the Universe and just breathe.

The best things in life are never acts for the ego; rather they are things we receive through grace.

Usually, when we quit something we feel like we can’t weather the storm. The world seems to be working against us, obstacles keep arising, and our headspace is filled with clutter and attachment. These situations are present in our lives both on and off the yoga mat. Floor poses, especially ones like Pigeon or Seated Forward Fold are postures most people give up on at some point in their yoga practice. The stretching hurts, we feel tight, our brains are racing and why don’t I look like the bendy girl in front of me?

Instead, when you learn to surrender to the stretch, the discomfort (or whatever it may be), that is when the yoga pose (or any given situation) actually starts to feel okay. Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution to lose weight and lasted only 2 months at the gym before you decided to quit? Maybe getting to the gym after work was a pain, motivation began to dwindle, and happy hour sounded better than a treadmill.

Here’s a way to shift your situation from quitting to surrender: instead of simply quitting altogether, surrender to the fact that going to the gym five days a week is unrealistic. Compromise with yourself. Go to the gym or do yoga 2-3 times a week and slowly work your way up to your goal. This way, you allow yourself to be flexible with your current circumstances – you find a happy medium instead of quitting altogether.

“Non-attachment to the end result is necessary, but it’s contrary to our goal-oriented Western mind, which seeks the payoff or reward for effort.” – John Salisbury

In the words of John Salisbury, “non-attachment to the end result is necessary, but it’s contrary to our goal-oriented Western mind, which seeks the payoff or reward for effort.” It’s hard for westernized humans to give in and surrender because we are taught to be goal-oriented and goal-driven. Every day we strive for perfection, and we sometimes set unattainable goals for ourselves leaving us feeling defeated and vulnerable.

While it is important to have goals, it is equally important to know when to let go. If there is something that you have been striving for and notice walls keep coming up, take an introspective look at why you set that goal. What is the intention behind it? Does your ego need this desire? When you let go and allow yourself to just be, you’ll start seeing shifts not only in your perspective, but also in how you choose to react to challenges as they arise. You are now armed with the ability to differentiate between something you should quit vs. something you should surrender to.

When we are faced with certain hardships, it is so easy to just want to quit. This is when you should take an introspective look at the situation and really sit with yourself. If quitting is the “easy” way out, then usually this is something you need to stick with. If you are working toward something that you know in your heart will serve you, stick with it. Fight with all your might, and don’t let anything get in the way of what you want.

If you are constantly hitting a wall in trying to obtain something (relationship, job, etc.), acknowledge what the Universe is trying to tell you. If you are desperately attaching to an outcome or object, this is a sign that your lesson is to trust the Universe and let go.

Surrendering to what you can’t control is where the true peace of mind lies. With this perspective, you enable yourself to let go and move forward. Trust that you will be taken care of, follow your heart, and see where the road takes you.