Quitting: Why We Do It (And How to Stop)

Focus on This

Michael Hyatt

Timemanagement, Productivity, Organization, Planning, Achievement, Education, Worklifebalance, Business, Michaelhyatt, Focus, Goals

4.6 • 627 Ratings

🗓️ 17 March 2025

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We’ve all been there—excited to chase a big goal, only to quit when things get hard. Why do we do it? And, more importantly, what can we do about it? In this episode, Marissa Hyatt and Ken Freire take a vulnerable, insightful look at what drives us to give up and reveal practical strategies for staying the course.

Key Takeaways

You Can Do Hard Things. Big goals require big growth. You’re not yet who you need to become to achieve your goal. The key? Staying connected to your why.
Progress Takes Time. Instead of getting discouraged, celebrate small wins and track how far you’ve come. If you quit too soon, failure is guaranteed.
Focus On the Next Right Thing. Goals are supposed to be risky—and that can make them overwhelming. Choose simple actions that move you forward.
Shame Will Try to Stop You. You’ll have to battle the belief that your worth is tied to your success (but don’t worry, we’ve got ideas to help).
Growth Can Feel Isolating. Not everyone wants to grow, because growth is uncomfortable. The key? Finding the right tribe to journey with you.

Resources

Watch on YouTube at: https://youtu.be/aXzs1mShBLs

This episode was produced by Sarah Vorhees Wendel of VW Sound

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	All right. So be honest with me. Have you ever quit a goal? And how recently, I guess, did you quit on a goal?
0:09.2	Yeah. Marissa, you know me. I'm perfect. So I don't quit. I'm great.
0:16.8	Amazing. Wow. Well, you can just go ahead and leave now and I'll stay on the honest planet and talk to the people.
0:23.6	All right. See ya. Bye. I feel like I've had to quit on a lot of things. Sometimes it was for really good
0:29.3	reasons and it was beneficial. But other times, if I'm truly honest, I quit because I had a bunch of
0:35.2	limiting beliefs. So I struggled with what I wanted to do.
0:40.0	For me, one of the most recent things that I quit on, this was a few years ago now, but I remember
0:46.1	when I started my own coaching business, I was trying to figure out how to do everything.
0:51.2	And someone hired me to be their CIO.
0:53.5	And I remember distinctively thinking to myself,
0:56.2	I'm going to do this because it's going to help me as a launching pad. And was that true? Yes.
1:00.9	But deep down inside, I did it because I was afraid of like being by myself and trying to figure
1:05.8	this whole thing out. And it derailed me to my longer term goals. Totally. Well, we had a conversation about, you know, a not-to-do list, like stopping certain
1:16.3	things because they don't add value.
1:19.5	And, you know, here's the truth is that sometimes we're not being strategic.
1:25.4	We're giving up.
1:27.2	We've all done it. Sounds like you've done it. I've certainly
1:30.5	done this. I have probably last year, at least half of my goals, if I'm honest, I quit on.
1:38.1	I just was so in a challenging season of my life, whether it was work-related, we had a lot of challenges
1:45.5	going on. It required a lot more of my energy than typical. And then I had a lot of health
1:52.4	stuff popping up last year that kind of derailed a lot of my goals and it quit. And I had a lot of
1:58.5	guilt. And it sucks to quit. It doesn't feel good typically.
	...

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