Hello, hello everyone. Welcome to Productivity Paradox. I’m your host Tanya Dalton and this is episode 17. Today we are going to be talking about the lost art of  quitting. Now, we’ve all heard the saying quitters never win and winners never quit.  How many of you think that’s true? I’m willing to bet there’s a large percentage of  

people right now nodding their heads, agreeing with that saying.  

 I want to really change the way that we look at quitting and not looking at as  something that’s a negative or something that is bad because quitting is not an end.  It’s actually the first step to redefining your goals and refocusing your life. I’m here to  say I am a proud quitter. I have quit some pretty big things in my time. There is none  bigger than the story that I’m getting ready to tell you about how I quit my first  business.  

 If you’ve listened to episode zero you’ve heard my backstory of how I started  my first business with $50 and I was a stay-at-home mom and through my job or  through my business that I started I was able to allow my husband John to quit  working in corporate America and come and work with me. That’s actually my  husband John’s voice in the voiceover that you hear at the very beginning of this  podcast, which makes me happy because everything we do we do together.  

 We were very happy working for our first business together. We loved that we  made decisions together, we loved that we worked together. It worked out really well.  I’m going to be honest with you and tell you that business did not fulfill me. It did not  feed my passion. It did not feel like it filled my purpose in life. The thing about that  business was it was great in that it paid our bills. We could pay our mortgage. I could  feed my kids. They do require to be fed three times a day, so it was really, really good  to feel that I had created something that allowed some security for my family so that  my husband and I could work together.  

 I wasn’t happy at all. Around the fall of 2013 I reached a breaking point with  feeling really just unhappy overall. It took some courage, but I went to talk to my  husband John and I said to him that I was not happy with what we were doing. I was  happy working with him and I was happy in our marriage and in our life together, but  I just wasn’t happy about our business that we did together. He confided in me that  he was feeling exactly the same way.  

 I didn’t know what we were going to do because as I said, this is the business  that paid our bills. This is what allowed me to live, right? For my children to live and  to eat, so it was a really tough decision. John and I sat together and we decided that  it was really important to be happy and to feel like you are following your mission in  life and to find that passion and the purpose inside of you.  

 He and I decided that we were going to sit down and work together to create  a business that really fulfilled us. We took some time and we made a decision. I’m not  going to go through all that we went through because it’s kind of a longer story and  I’ll maybe share parts of it later on in this podcast, but to me it was really the idea of  

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jumping in with both feet. Could we really quit our business and go without any sort  of income for six to eight months while we had to work to open up Inkwell Press?  

 It was scary. I had poured a lot of time, a lot of energy and if any of you have  owned a business you know that business is kind of like another child to you, right? It  takes up so much of your time and your energy and you pour so much love into your  business that it can become really, really difficult to think about abandoning that and  walking away. He and I did it. We made that decision together that we were going to  close our business and we were going to redirect our life to focus on something that  we were passionate about. We did it.  

 We saved up. We planned to quit and we did it. We quit our business and then  we reshifted our gears and we refocused into what was important for us. What was  important to me was creating Inkwell Press. Now I have a business that I am so  passionate about, I’m so fulfilled by and it makes me happy on a daily basis. It allows  me to do things like this podcast here. If I had stuck with that old business that I had  that I didn’t love, I would probably still be okay in that I’d be paying my bills and able  to contribute to society, but I wouldn’t feel happy the way I do now, the way that I  wake up excited to go to work and the way that my kids can see that I have followed  my dreams.  

 It’s a whole different feeling in my opinion. It wouldn’t be possible if I hadn’t  quit. So I am a quitter. I want to encourage you to figure out what are the things that  you need to quit? Let’s talk about why we have a hard time quitting. I think a lot of it  is the guilt that we feel. We talked in our last episode, episode 16, about cost bias and  how that feeds into our decision making and that we need to get rid of that. A lot of  that guilt comes from that. If you’re feeling guilty I would encourage you to listen to  episode 16. Think about what are the messages that we hear all the time? Always  clean your plate. Always finish what you start. That’s all not necessarily true.  

 The first one is a recipe for gaining weight if you have to clear your plate very  time. The second is a formula for not getting much done. It’s just so hardwired in our  brains not to quit. There’s a phenomenon called the near win. We can thank our  primitive selves for not wanting to quit because this actually is hardwired into our  systems. When our protohuman ancestors almost but didn’t quite catch their dinner,  the physical actions that made up for their near win taught them that with  persistence that animal would eventually get caught.  

 Our brains are not good at figuring out when the near win is applicable and  when it isn’t. Really for the most part that’s no longer applicable in the modern world.  Choosing to quit is not instinctive, but it’s imperative in today’s world. There are  actually a lot of positives to quitting. I just touched on them in my own story in how  quitting what I was doing allowed me to really focus in and find the things that I was  passionate about. It can permit you to grow and learn and it can help you frame new  goals.  

 Without the choice of giving up most people will end up in a discouraging loop  of just doing the same thing because that’s what they’ve always done. Is that really  the way you want to live? Or is it okay to go outside of that loop and find something  different? Quitting might actually be a healthy, adaptive response when an important  

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goal can’t be reached. You have to assess is that goal really important to you? It’s  hard to feel good about quitting because it’s wired into us that we don’t want to quit.  

 Let me start by giving you permission. You don’t need to finish every book that  you start. You don’t have to complete every project you begin and you don’t have to  continue habits that no longer serve you. Try using some mental contrasting. Use  positive thinking or visualization to envision the future you want while really  acknowledging those barriers that are keeping you from your goal. Those barriers are  the things that maybe you need to consider quitting.  

 When you decide to quit, you’re not going to find support from everyone. My  parents had a really hard time understanding why we would close the business that  really was not fulfilling to us. They knew it paid the bills and my parents are very, very  supportive. They love me unconditionally, but they didn’t understand why I would  choose to do something so reckless in their minds when really it was all about finding  the things that were important to me.  

 You have to feel confident that when you make a decision to quit something it  is your decision and not anyone else’s. Other people might not understand, and that’s  okay. Just remember, you’re not defined by this thing, this job or project or this  person or the venture. Whatever it is, there are many aspects to you and your life and  this one thing is just one part. It does not define you. By quitting this thing you’re not  cutting off an essential part of yourself, okay? I want you to really internalize that and  think about that, that it is actually okay to quit.  

 How do you quit? How do you get to that decision of quitting? I’ll tell you the  wrong way. The wrong way to quit is the I’m out of here moment where you just knee  jerk because something didn’t quite go your way or you’re unhappy so immediately  you’re going to do it. That just basically trades off one kind of stuck for another. You’ll  end up with tons of baggage, disappointments, thoughts, feelings and some anxiety.  You really have to plan it out.  

 I love Parks and Rec so I felt like this was a good place to give and example  with Parks and Recs involved. You don’t necessarily want to be Ron Swanson who  says, “It’s my belief that you never start something you don’t intend to finish.” You  don’t want to be Tom Haverford who says, “I love quitting. When I was a kid, things  

didn’t go my way I’d take the ball and go home. That’s better than winning because  then your friends can’t play anymore.” There’s no need to be dramatic or to quit just  because.  

 Make sure that when you’re making a decision to quit it’s mindful. I love that  Bob Goff has a standing practice that he calls quitting Thursdays. He quits something  every Thursday. I do think that’s a little bit extreme. I think if you’re involved in a ton  of things maybe you could half quit Thursdays, but he likes to look at it is everything  we quit helps us reclaim time for the things that matter most. You’ve heard me say  before every time we say yes, we’re saying no to something else, right?  

 Let’s start now by figuring out what are some things that you could maybe  quit today? I’ve created a download to make it even easier for you. You’ll be able to  get the download if you go to InkwellPress.com/podcast. It will be in the show notes  

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of episode 17. Down at the bottom I’ll have a resources and link section. You’ll be able  to find it there.  

 When you look at the download you’ll find that it’s divided into three columns.  Each one of the columns is labeled, one is activity, one is time spent and the third one  is rating. In the activities column I want you to list out the things you do every week.  Write them out in a list format, not a paragraph, but write them out as a list. Then in  the second column I want you to write down the time spent. How much time do you  on average spend doing that task? Write that out and be realistic with your time  estimates.  

 Then under rating I want you to give it a rating on a one to 10 scale of each  activity. Ten is something you absolutely love and one is the most irritating or  wasteful activities you can think of. When you’re giving yourself ratings, think about  these questions: is it fun? Am I energized or am I depleted when I’m doing this? Does  it align with your goals? What will people think? Am I doing this for myself? You  might need to add more detail or break your tasks down even further to find your  worst offenders.  

 I can promise you they’re there, okay? After you’ve done the activities and the  time spent and you’ve given the ratings, I want you to circle the tasks that you rated  four and below. Okay? When you’ve done that you’re going to see these are the  activities you need to try and quit. Add up the amount of time you’re using on these  circled tasks. For each one of those circled tasks you had an amount of time you said  you spent. Add that up because that number, that is how much time you spend each  week doing activities you don’t really enjoy.  

 That is time you can spend in other ways. What can you be doing with that  time that you just found? You just found pockets of time in your day, right? Would it  be starting a more fulfilling project? Spending time with people on your priority list?  Refining a hobby? Working towards a goal? Whatever it is, that’s your underlying yes.  I want you to write down those tasks or activities in the bottom section. I want you  not just to write them out, but write down too how you’ll feel when you do those  activities.  

 When you’re writing that down you’re going to feel excited about these things.  That strong emotional energy you just attached to this needs to be strong enough to  help you quit those wasteful tasks. Now it’s time to quit. There may be some  resistance, especially if you’re quitting something that feels really big, but count your  cost against your yes and keep moving forward. Whenever you feel like oh, I don’t  know. I feel some resistance. I don’t really want to quit. Maybe it’s scary, think about  that item or those tasks or activities you put in that bottom section and how you’ll be  spending your time on them.  

 I know there’s going to be some arguments in your head about why you can’t  quit, so let me address a few of those for you now, okay? The first thing you’re going  to say is, “What about the thing? I can’t just drop this. I can’t just do that altogether.”  

Maybe it’s taking out the trash or those kinds of things. Those things still have to  happen, right?  

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 Can you delegate it or could you outsource it? Could you possibly share them  with someone else so you don’t have to do it every week? Let’s say it is taking out the  trash and that’s one of your activities that you absolutely hate. Could you alternate  that with your roommate or your spouse or have your kids start doing it? Not every  delegation or outsource has to involved money. There can be a trade-off, right?  

 Think of it that way. Could you share that with somebody else so you don’t  have to do it every week? If these activities include things like driving your kids to  15,000 different after school activities, I’m going to remind you of this. Your goals and  your dreams are no less significant than anyone else’s and that includes your kids.  Here I am, I’m going to get on my soapbox for a second. I’m going to tell you it’s  healthy for your kids to be told no and to understand that you have things that you  want to do.  

 You might even try opening up the conversation to see if the activities you’re  taxiing them to every week even really align with what they want to do. You might be  surprised to find that they don’t want all those activities on their agenda and they  would be just as happy to be at home. I’m going to hop off my soapbox now, but I do  want to encourage you that if you’re spending a lot of your time driving other people  to their goals, think about your own. It’s not selfish at all. It is actually good modeling  for others to see that you are chasing down your own dreams. Okay?  

 For the things you can’t quit altogether, think about delegating, outsourcing,  sharing, carpooling. So many things that you can do. What about the other thing  that’s going to come up, but I made commitments to these people. They’re going to  feel let down. Maybe these people are your customers or your colleagues or your  friends or your family. You assume that what you’re doing is making a big difference  to them, but they may in fact actually barely notice if you scale back or if you stop  doing something altogether.  

 There is that possibility that you have given it more importance than they  really feel. Here’s what you could do. Try quietly eliminating or scaling back on an  activity for a few days or a few weeks and then assess whether it really seems to  make a difference to these people that you’ve made these commitments to or if no  one even notices. You might be surprised some of the things that you’re doing on a  regular basis that other people don’t care as much about as you do and you’re giving  them a lot more importance than they really deserve.  

 That’s what my encouragement for you is to really think about what are the  things that you want to quit and then make a plan to quit. Make a plan to get rid of  some of these things that aren’t as important to you. Make it easier for yourself in the  future. People are always going to be trying to rope you into their priorities. It’s okay  to quit before you’ve even started. We’ve talked about the power of saying no before  and finding your yes, but let me give you a quick and easy trick to make it even easier  for you.  

 Try having some pre-written responses to say no if you get a lot of requests for  your time. If you get requests for your time over and over again, think about some  pre-written responses that you can write back to tell people no. Find those emails  you’re most often having to say no to. Maybe it’s emails for volunteer positions or  

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emails for projects, pro bono work or whatever it is and figure out a thoughtful and  gracious but general response.  

 You don’t want them to feel bad for asking, but you can say definitively no to  their request. Then I want you to save that email. Save that response in some way.  Gmail has canned responses you can use, or if you don’t have those canned  responses here is one of my favorite tricks, use your email signature. Almost every  email program has some sort of email signature and you can choose different ones.  They’re not just for email signatures.  

 You could write out that response and save it as an email signature. Give it a  name like response to someone asking for money or whatever it is. Then you can find  it easily. Then when you get one of these requests, all you have to do is find the right  response, modify the language a little bit to personalize it and hit send. Done. You’ve  said no without really feeling icky about it. Because that’s really what it boils down to.  We don’t like that feeling when we tell people no.  

 If you have an assistant you could even have them have the responses and  save them for them to use. Then you don’t have to worry about the time it’s taking. I  really want to encourage you to find the things that you need to quit in order to live  the fulfilling life that you want to have. Instead of winners never quit and quitters  never win, consider this. Winners quit all the time. They just know when to quit the  right stuff at the right time. You can do this. You can totally do this.  

 You can find the things that you don’t want to do and you can start saying,  “No,” or “I quit,” and there’s nothing wrong with that at all. I want to really encourage  you to get that download so you can walk through that exercise we talked about  during this episode. You can find that at InkwellPress.com/podcast and it will be  under episode 17 in the links and resources section. I’ll have a little link there for you  to download that so you can find what it is that you want to really focus in your time  doing.  

 Okay, I’m really excited about this because I feel like quitting is one of those  things that has had a bad rap for far too long and I want to encourage you to find the  things that you really want to spend your time doing. I’m really excited to see how  this goes. I’d love for you to fill out the worksheet and feel free to tag me on social  media. You can find me with the user name Inkwell Press on Facebook and Instagram.  

 You can use #productivityparadox when you’re posting or feel free to head to  my Facebook page and post there or send me an email at hello@inkwellpress.com. I  love to hear how you’re doing. It really excites me when I see so many emails from  you guys telling me about how you’re implementing a lot of this streamlining. I just  think it’s fabulous, so I’m really excited to see how you’re going to find the things that  you want to quit. All right, until next time, happy planning.  

**This transcript is created by AI, so please excuse any typos, misspellings and grammar mistakes.

Tanya Dalton is a top rated female productivity keynote speaker. She offers keynotes are inspiring with actionable content and a motivating message.