It occurred to me today that no one quits when it’s easy to keep going.

I was thinking about quitting this blog. I am coming up on my 150th consecutive daily blog post, and it’s sometimes hard to come up with additional things to say. If I stopped at 150, and just shut things down, I could get a bit of a break. I feel like a lot of what I write is pointless drivel, and it’s honestly keeping me from making much progress at all on the novel(s) that I’m trying to write.

And then, as I was contemplating quitting, you’ll never guess what happened. As I was sitting there, I came up with three or four ideas that would make great posts, including remembering an excellent idea that I’d forgotten earlier today, when I didn’t have the opportunity to capture the idea as it was in my head. Hate it when that happens.

So, at the end of the day, the question of quitting or not quitting is the question at hand.

* * *

I think that quitting is primarily a response to difficult times, to desperation, and to fatigue. No one quits when things are easy, because it wouldn’t make any sense.

But, what if I told you that it makes EVEN LESS SENSE to quit when things are hard? What if I told you that quitting only makes the slightest bit of sense when things are easy?

Let me explain.

What gives a person the power to be able to make their way through something hard is having been through something hard before. If that sounds a little bit like ‘the chicken or the egg’, let me continue.

You have faced difficult things all of your life. Every time you have, you have either had the option to quit, or you haven’t. And, because there have been certain times in your life when you’ve had to face hard things without getting the option of quitting, you persevere through those challenges. The strength that we receive when we persevere makes it possible for us to do the hard things in the future.

So, the trick is to never quit, if there exists no other reason for quitting, other than how hard things have become. The only strength that any of us have ever been able to establish in our lives is a tenacity that came during a time when quitting wasn’t an option. If you’re going to quit, quit when things are easy –> if you quit during the easy times, at least you aren’t cheating yourself out of an opportunity to become stronger, to increase your stamina, via one of life’s difficulties.

I have a motivational poster, pinned on one of my Pinterest boards, that says, “Sometimes, it doesn’t get easier, you get stronger. Sometimes, life doesn’t work out, you work through it. Sometimes, things don’t get better, you get better.”

The growth mindset.

* * *

When I am out on a run, sometimes, I quit. I get to the place where I don’t want to run anymore, and then I stop. I pull out of my stride and I walk instead. I do this for a few dozen steps, or maybe many dozens of steps, and then I get back to the running.

I don’t know why I do this as often as I do. In fact, I’ll do it many times without it even having crossed my conscious mind that I need to, or want to, quit. I just stop, and then I think to myself, “Why did you even do that? Get back up to pace, you lazy slacker!”

Because I have the option to do so, I choose so. If there were no options for quitting during my workouts, then I’d persevere.

It reminds me of a story that I read, years back, from Stephen King. The story is called The Long Walk, and it’s a good one, if you are looking for a story to read. It’s most definitely about runners who don’t have the option to quit.

The bottom line is, when I persevere, I get stronger. That strength makes it less likely that I will find it necessary to quit in the future. Quitting begets quitting.

If I stopped quitting, then I could stop quitting. Wrap your head around that one.

* * *

My life verse is James 1:2-4 (I guess it’s my life ‘three verses’). These verses discuss how important it is for people to celebrate difficulties, because it’s the tribulations in life that lead to the strengthening of our character.

The way that these verses actually talk about the tribulations of life, we should be happy about the bad times. Talk about the opposite of how we usually look at things! How many people do you know that look forward to things being hard?

I have a friend who is practiced in saying really smart things that make me scratch my head until I come to understand them. He often rephrases “I have to…” into “I get to…” For example, where other people might say, “I have to take out the garbage”, this friend of mine might say, “I get to take out the garbage.” As many times as I’ve heard him say this, I’ve thought that I understood what he was getting at.

However, I don’t know if I’ve ever fully understood the implication of those words until they coincided with the writing of this post.

The way that we look at things –easy things, difficult things, what have you– is part of the equation that determines, in our minds, their level of difficulty. More specifically, our choice in doing certain things can help us to look at those things as opportunities, rather than as tortures to be endured.

The individual who is thinking, “I have to take out the garbage” is probably not very likely to think of the event as an opportunity for getting one’s heartrate up or for stretching one’s legs. But, the person who is thinking, “I get to take out the garbage” at least hasn’t closed their mind to thinking of the event and its possibilities.

Perhaps, the next time I am thinking about quitting during my run, I won’t think to myself, “I have to go another mile.” Maybe, instead, I’ll think, “I get to go another mile!”

And, the next time I think about quitting during my writing adventures, I’ll remember the great opportunity that is mine for the taking.