Winners never quit? [Is this true?]
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Have you ever heard the phrase “Winners never quit. Quitters never win”?
I’m sure you have.
Everyone has, yeah?
It’s a phrase I’ve gone back and forth on over the years.
When I first started as a PT (nearly 20 years ago) it was the kind of motivational quote I liked.
I say “motivational” – I don’t know how many people it’s ever actually helped motivate.
Then over time, I came to the realisation that there’s nothing wrong with stopping doing something.
To change course.
To realise something isn’t working.
To focus our energies on something we value more.
Why keep doing something that we don’t like and / or isn’t benefitting us?
But then I’ve veered back a bit.
Since having kids.
There’s something about hearing them say the word that I don’t like.
“I want to quit football, tennis, gymnastics, trampolining, violin, etc.”
Or “Insert Friend Name has quit XYZ – I want to as well”.
I don’t mind them stopping doing something.
But it’s the mindset that the word “quit” puts us in.
Giving up because it got too hard.
With something we actually still want to do.
And it will probably “start again” with at the future.
That’s the difference.
When we “quit” exercising, better eating, etc………..
Are we really saying we don’t want the benefits of it any more?
That we’ll never, ever do it again?
Do we need to stop completely?
Could we just “slow down and speed up as circumstance dictates”?
Do a knowingly sub-optimal version that feels doable at that point?
Then, maybe, a bit more when we feel we can?
It doesn’t need to be all or nothing.
We never need to “quit”.
Stopping completely some things when we no longer value doing them, makes sense.
Doing what we can with the things we do value when we can’t do them quite as much as we’d ideally like makes even more sense.
Much love,
Jon ‘Chicken Dinner’ Hall
