By Ann Guo

For many people, there’s a stigma attached to quitting or being a quitter, which makes them persistent and diligent. Nevertheless, it can work against you if you don’t heed physical and emotional warnings telling you to get out of or change a bad situation.

Also, remember that sometimes people who look like quitters from one perspective are not if you shift the point of view.  For example, say you have a friend who keeps trying different diets. One week it’s the Paleo diet. The next, it’s vegan eating.

To you, it might seem like your friend has no diligence and keeps quitting things.  But to him, his goal is optimal health. He samples different diets in order to find one that works best to support this goal to which he is 100% committed. This is why he can quit a diet, which is just a tactic, without being a quitter.  

If you decide to approach your job that way, then the stigma of being a quitter evaporates.  Instead, you are trying different things to get to your goal of job satisfaction. Here is another example: My co-worker is also an artist.  She scored high on the Grit Test and has a stigma against quitting.

In addition, she has taken photography, painting, sewing, and beading lessons.  One after the other.  For a while, she worried about becoming a quitter but then realized that she was actually building a repertoire of skills to use for her mixed media artwork. She was not quitting art–just building up her knowledge and remaining engaged and excited about her work.

To sum up, quitting is all about perspective, energy, and goals.  If you know where you are going and what you need, there is no shame in quitting.