It’s Time to Quit. Go Ahead. Do it.

It’s a new year with promises of prosperity and good things. The annual bucket list is ready to be implemented, and the old year is gone, done, in the books. Was it good? Will this year be better? What are your plans to make the new year a win?

Leave it Behind

Maybe it’s time to quit something in your life and move on to the next great opportunity. There are plenty of things I’d like to leave behind and never see again. It might be that sentimental old car that I need to quit because no matter how much I love that beast, the winter storage fees are no longer worth it. And there was that woodworking class I took a decade ago. The tools I bought in my exuberance cost a small fortune. The continued anxiety over not having used them and the cost (long ago paid for) still haunt me. And once, I thought I’d start a subscription mail-order business and acquired the inventory and packing materials to make my millions shipping mechanical pencil lead replacements. Sometimes, we just pursue the wrong idea.

Many of us have invested significant time or money in a project, a job, a relationship, a career—so much so that we refuse to abandon them, hoping that all efforts will finally pay off. However, when we double-down on our bets, the costs tend to increase. Instead, every time a decision is made to continue paying storage fees or to keep unused tools, ask yourself if it makes real business sense or personal sense and if you are missing out on valuable opportunities.

Quitting Can Be a Sign of Progress

It’s not a failure to stop doing something that is no longer useful or that does not make life better. Sure, this could be a job that doesn’t satisfy you, and sometimes we are not successful—maybe we aren’t suited to our job, maybe the pencil thing was pretty stupid, or maybe we just don’t enjoy the car enough any longer.

Sometimes, we truly do fail. But many times, we must reach beyond what so clearly seems to need fixing and realize that it’s not necessarily a failure to quit. Clearing our lives of unnecessary weight open our world of possibilities. Sometimes, a problem is worth fixing, but if it’s not, there is more value in leaving it behind. That is not always failure—that can be wisdom.

Clear the Path

We must develop a certain level of clear objectivity and self-awareness so that we don’t continue to flounder at something we should no longer be doing. If each one were to clear our lives of detrimental pursuits, we would be better able to sow the seed of successful investment in our lives and careers.

Go ahead and walk away from the source of your problems if they cannot be remedied. It’s time. Start anew. It may be your wisest choice.

Author Profile Jon Forknell is the Vice President and General Manager of Atlas Business Solutions, Inc., a software marketing company specializing in employee scheduling software, including ScheduleBase employee scheduling software, and other business software solutions. In the past, Jon has been recognized by the U.S. Small Business Administration as a SBA Young Entrepreneur of the Year. Atlas Business Solutions was named as one of Software Magazine’s Top 500 Software Companies in 2004 through 2007, and 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, and 2018.