I'm A Quitter

Some people segment their lives based on their age- in their 20s they acted one way, in their 30s they were interested in some item, and so on or so forth.

I segment my life into phases. There was my piano phase, which lasted from the time I was about seven to my middle school years. At first I was genuinely interested in learning how to play until I realized I had to practice consistently almost everyday to get better.

Then there was my knitting phase, which was rather short compared to my other phases. I lived out this phase in late 2015/early 2016 and successfully knitted my own scarf, pretty well I might add. I bought a few other spools of knitting fabric, which are sitting in my closet gathering dust at this very moment.

Then there was my author-in-training phase, which took place in middle school right after I finished reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and decided I was going to be the next J.K. Rowling. I wrote creative stories for a while after that. I even went so far as to co-write stories with one of my friends. That phase ended when I became so self critical that I’d delete a paragraph immediately after writing because I thought it wasn’t good enough.

I hope you’re seeing the common theme running through my life phases. I’ve quit a lot of things.  It starts off with me learning the basics of a subject and dropping it once my inner critic gets too loud or I just get lazy. I didn’t start to label myself as a quitter until my freshman year in college and now that I’m a senior, the realization that one of the biggest parts of my life (a.k.a. school) is going to be missing. I’m about to have a lot more free time.  

A few months ago I was lucky enough to attend a Women’s Summit at my job where guest speaker, Angela Duckworth, came in and talked about the importance of perseverance (or as she called it, grit). She said talent doesn’t always equal success. What matters is a combination of work ethic and talent. And you can’t master something if you quit it when it starts getting tough.  

I was blown away. This woman just described my life. Not only that but there were other people in the room nodding their heads in agreement, turning to their friends and whispering “that’s so me,” and hanging on to every word she said. Other people have this issue too.

Of course, sometimes quitting things is a good thing. Not every hobby or passion project is going to resonate with you. However, you have to think about why you’ve chosen to give something up. Is it because you are genuinely uninterested in the subject or is it because you were lazy, afraid to fail, didn’t have time, etc.? I’ve always been someone who loves to start things and throw out ideas but actually following through until the end is somewhat of a foreign concept.

So how do I change my mindset from the person that is a “jack of all trades, master of none” type to someone who hones her craft whether it be a small hobby or a career related specialty?

I am going to challenge myself to actually finish something. Or to keep practicing something. Even when it’s hard, or I think I don’t have enough time for it when I actually could if I stopped wasting it. This blog is my way of keeping myself accountable. Almost everything I’ve ever followed through with or finished happened because other people depended on me to finish whatever I had started.