Common Management Errors (38)
xxxviii) Knowing when to quit (or say 'no')
'Strategic quitting' is forgoing one option to pursue another, ie a way to help you free up more time, money and energy for things that matter. It involves learning to say 'no'. It involves understanding opportunity cost, ie in order to pursue one option, we must forego certain others. One of the costs is time, ie it is finite as there are only 24 hours in each day
"...winners are smart quitters who quit often, like when they realise their current decisions cannot get them any further towards their goals. Cutting their losses allows winners to reallocate their time and energy to things that do continue to move them forward..."
Seth Godin as quoted by Stephanie Lee 2018
Research (Adelaide University) has found
"...Trying to do and cling to too many things cannibalises our precious limited resources that might be better spent elsewhere..."
Stephanie Lee 2018
Some reasons why quitting is hard to do revolve around
- the sunken costs of investment of our time, energy, money and other resources like relationships, etc, ie you want a return
- don't waste rule, ie already allocated resources
- breakthrough just around the corner, ie a bit more effort and everything will fall into place
- perseverance, ie many good ideas never came to fruition because people gave up too early
- ego and self-esteem, ie we want to be a success; quitting could be regarded as a type of failure and can be emotionally painful.
To handle these, need to focus on
"... What do I need for me to be happy and what's good for me?..."
Kristen Neff as quoted by Stephanie Lee 2018
Removing yourself from the situation and pretending you're giving advice to a good friend or family member who is in exactly the same situation may be useful. Talking with people who have achieved similar goals to yours and finding out what they have done to achieve success is also recommended.