Life

When Is It Okay To Give Up?

Have you ever tried to cut stretch fabric? It’s like asking a baby to sit perfectly still at the edge of a couch. Impossible.

For the last three months, every Wednesday I work a jam packed day and shuffle into class dinner-less to focus my blurry eyes on little stitches. Recently, this resulted in me accidentally sewing my finger. When I originally said, “I want to make swimsuits,” the vision in my brain looked less bloody and more like me waving a wand and doing cartwheels on the beach in Lisa Frank polyester blends.

Image Source: Billboard

And while I still really love it, I’m torn. You can only have so many passions projects before your divided attention makes you mediocre at a lot of things.

Which brings me to the question of the day: When is it okay to give up?

I asked myself this question every day a few months ago when I attempted to do a Paleo Diet. I asked Eric 3X per day until he begged me to just eat a cookie and get it over with.

I grew up believing that you never give up and you see things through to the end. But when college gave me the freedom to say no to things more often, I lost that gritty John Wayne angel on my shoulder that always told me to finish the job.

And sometimes, I think that’s okay. We start projects as a way to learn that they aren’t for us or that they were a really bad idea in the first place. It’s an uncomfortable and essential way to figure out what we are really good at.

But the question still remains, how long do you give something a chance? And when do you chalk something up as a learning experience vs. a minor road bump?

Here’s are my favorite results from Google:

When you are constantly questioning yourself, feeling as though every decision you make is less based on what you want and more based on what you think is “appropriate”
When the process of getting to the end goal drains you more than it challenges or inspires you.
When you’re only holding on because you want something to show for your investment.
When the main reason you haven’t given up yet is because you’re afraid of what others would say about you if you did.
When giving up would increase your quality of life.
When you have a bigger dream and better plan.
When it isn’t making you a better person or the person you would like to be.

Let us all ponder the projects in our lives that are ready to go to a better place.