95 - Friday Fix: Does Quitting Mean You’re Weak?

The Verywell Mind Podcast

Dotdash Media Inc.

Health & Fitness, Self-improvement, Mental Health, Education

5 • 703 Ratings

🗓️ 6 August 2021

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Most of us feel pressure to keep going when things feel hard. In fact, we sometimes think that the harder something is to do, the longer we should stick with it. We’ve been told things like, “Quitters never win,” and “Never ever give up!” Certainly pushing yourself even when things get hard can build character. Grit, perseverance, and hardiness are all key components of mental strength. But does quitting a job you hate mean you weren’t strong enough to hack it? On today’s Friday Fix, I share how to know when you should quit and when you should keep going. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.
0:22.9	This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.
0:48.7	Okay. You're listening to the Friday fix. Every Friday, I share a quick mental strength exercise that will help fix the thoughts, emotions, and actions that drain you of the mental strength
0:53.3	you need to be your best.
0:55.0	Today I'm talking about quitting, and whether quitting something means you're weak.
0:59.4	When Simone Biles chose to drop out of the Olympics for mental health reasons, I saw a lot of
1:04.7	strong opinions on social media about it. Some people said she was a hero for prioritizing her health.
1:10.8	While other people expressed concern that our athletes have gotten so soft that they can't withstand the pressure of competition.
1:17.4	My inbox was actually flooded with people asking questions like, does quitting mean your week?
1:22.7	And shouldn't you be strong enough to keep going when things feel hard?
1:27.2	Well, as the author of four books on mental strength, including one called 13 things mentally strong people don't do, I have to say I'm actually a big fan of quitting.
1:37.3	I think people should quit more often than they do.
1:40.5	Granted, I'm a quitter myself.
1:42.9	I have a history of quitting some pretty big things pretty fast.
1:46.8	I quit preschool, the saxophone, and med school, all within the first day of trying them.
1:52.7	I hated the first day of preschool. My friend Allison, who is still one of my best friends of all time, loved it.
1:59.2	So I decided if she loved it and I hated it, school wasn't
2:02.7	a problem, I was. And somehow at the age of four, I convinced my parents not to make me go back to
2:08.3	preschool ever again, because preschool just wasn't for me. Then when I was in the sixth grade,
2:13.5	I thought it'd be really cool to play the saxophone. I think I'd seen Lisa Simpson play her
2:17.8	saxophone on the show, and I thought that it looked like a lot of fun. When I showed up to my first
2:22.9	lesson, though, all the other kids in the class knew so much about music, and they could
	...

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