The power of quitting

Giving up on a project isn’t always bad — even if it’s something you have worked on for hours, days, weeks, or years


There are few worse experiences than realising that a task you have spent weeks or months researching is, well, going nowhere. There’s always the temptation to do even more research, if only to justify those weeks or months as anything other than wasted time.

This is a completely illogical impulse, but it’s a human impulse nonetheless.


The New York Times addresses this phenomenon in a recent article on the art of ‘strategic quitting’ — a term borrowed from author and entrepreneur Seth Godin. It explains why we so often loathe to stop pursuing a long time goal, even one that has proven unattainable. And why doing so would ultimately make us happier, and would free us up to pursue other, more realistic ambitions.

Jon Acuff gives similar advice in his 2017 book Finish: Choose What to Bomb. Acuff virtually shakes readers until they understand that there is no way they can achieve everything they want to: think being an awesome parent, being a stellar employee, keeping a pristine home, cooking a nutritious dinner every night, and volunteering on the community board.

Instead, Acuff tells readers to choose in advance what they’re going to ‘bomb’ — that is fail at — and to be okay with that.

The logic here is that, the more thinly you spread your time and energy, the less progress you make towards each individual goal. Pick one goal and give it your all and you will have a better shot at success.