• About
    • Meet Joel
    • The IMPOSSIBLE Shirt
  • Speaking
  • Giving

IMPOSSIBLE ®

Push Your Limits | Do Something Impossible

  • Home
  • Impossible List™
  • Blog
    • Archives
  • Gear
  • Apps
    • Running + Fitness Calculators
    • Move Well – Mobility Exercises
    • Cold Shower Therapy
  • Podcast
  • Events
  • 777
You are here: Home / Mindset / How To Know When To Quit Or Keep Going

How To Know When To Quit Or Keep Going

August 16, 2016 By Joel Runyon 12 Comments

When do you quit and when do you keep going?

How do you know when you’re doing something impossible, if you need to keep going or if you need to quit and try something else. A lot of times people say they feel like they’re banging their head against a wall.

Everyone asks this & most people don’t like the answer.

Here’s my answer: most people just give up too soon. There are a lot of things you can do just by wanting it more than anyone else & sticking with it when most people want to quit. If you’ve tried painting one day and you’re mad you’re not picasso – suck it up buttercup – sorry to burst your bubble but even snowflakes have to do work – welcome to life.

That’s the root cause that makes most people ask the question – they come into life with the wrong expectations. They expect it to be easy and when it’s now – they think they’re doing it wrong and need to give up right away.

Do this differently. Expect it to be hard. That way, when it is actually hard – you’re not surprised and you can put your head down and keep after it.

That’s why 95% of people simply give up too soon.

If you’re thinking “oh, that’s not me” – look in the mirror and do a gut check. Yes, statistically, this is probably you.

The other side of the coin is that sometimes you banging your head against the wall – and you’ve simply found the hard part of the wall. The wall still needs to come down – but you need to attack a different part of it.

“Giving up” in this context doesn’t meant stopping altogether, but maybe trying a different part of the wall, trying something new and seeing if a new approach might work better.

You’re giving up on the tactic, but not the end goal.

Bang your head enough on a wall with drywall and you’ll eventually break it down. Bang your had against a wall where the studs are and you’re just going to get brain damage.

So that’s part of the puzzle too…

But – there’s also a point where you decide that maybe the wall isn’t even worth breaking down? That you’re just doing it for reasons that don’t really matter.

As I was thinking about this the other day, I drew this in my notebook to help visualize how to decide what to do.

when to give up impossible

There’s a matrix. There’s the level of difficulty and the level of importance. Most things tend to fall into 1 of 4 categories.

  • Important and Easy
  • Important and Hard
  • Not Important and Easy
  • Not Important and Hard

If something’s important to you, do it. It doesn’t matter what it is, do it. If you can’t get it out of your head, sit down and figure out how to build brain reinforcements because that freaking wall is coming down.

If something isn’t important to you – why the hell are you still doing it? Don’t do any of this.

If something is easy – there’s probably a lot of people trying to do the same thing – why are you wasting your time on it (if it’s not important). If it is easy – you should get it done ASAP.

So When Do You Give Up and When Do You Keep Going?

Here’s the legend:

Important and Easy = Do It Now

Important and Hard = Embrace The Suck

Not Important and Easy = Don’t Waste Time Here

Not Important and Hard = STOP – You’ll get brain damage.

Got it?

Now go do something impossible & stick with it.

Tweet
Pin2
Share33
35 Shares

Filed Under: Mindset

About Joel Runyon

I started IMPOSSIBLE to push myself to try to live a life worth writing about by pushing my limits, living an adventure & telling a great story by doing the impossible. You can get free updates in your inbox via your new favorite newsletter, free fitness training tutorials, and see all my businesses at Impossible X and our philanthropic efforts at Impossible.org

Comments

  1. Jerry Dugan says

    August 16, 2016 at 10:16 pm

    Love that quadrant so much better than what I learned from a Steve Covey lesson.

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      August 17, 2016 at 2:11 am

      What was that lesson?

      Reply
      • Gloria Giang says

        August 17, 2016 at 4:41 pm

        Hey Joel, I think Jerry is referring to the time management matrix.

        The four inputs are urgent, not urgent, important and not important.

        Reply
  2. JenMot says

    August 17, 2016 at 8:33 am

    I love this – I just drew the matrix on a sticky note for my monitor and passed this article onto colleagues through linked in. Great way to gain some perspective on our unnecessary tasks. Nice job Joel.

    Reply
  3. ConorFlynn says

    August 17, 2016 at 10:15 am

    Thanks for this post Joel. I think I’ve seen this diagram before but it’s time I really started applying it on a daily basis.

    Reply
    • Joel Runyon says

      August 17, 2016 at 1:52 pm

      I literally just drew it up. If you’ve seen it somewhere else – please let me know.

      Reply
  4. Stanislav says

    August 17, 2016 at 10:29 am

    So simple but so true.

    Reply
  5. PATTY says

    August 17, 2016 at 11:41 am

    Embracing the suck is something that I’ve been doing for a few years now, I agree it seems as if everyone gives up too easily. What’s worse is when you’re both trying to accomplish the same thing, they give up, then they try to convince you that what you’re doing is impossible and you’re just wasting your time. Sometimes too it seems it really is impossible.
    Currently I’m trying to master Chinese to fluency. A lot of times I would try to speak to a native then have no idea what is going on, I would look like a complete fool. Honestly though, there were some times I was so embarrassed I cried afterwards (they were manly tears of course). But after every time I manned up and continued studying the next day. Giving up was not an option. I’m now at a point in which I can almost pass the HSK fluency test. Sure it may take a few months or years to be at the point I want to be, be this is important to me so I must “embrace the suck”

    Reply
  6. Rebecca says

    August 17, 2016 at 6:59 pm

    5 years ago, I started an adventure that began with few obstacles. It was important to do this. So, when year 2 rolled in and marked 18 months of constant roadblocks, I thought “maybe I need a different adventure”. But I embraced the suck and redesigned the plans. Went about it in many different ways. At year 4, I admitted defeat. That adventure just lost it’s importance! Now, if I had been on this quest alone, I would have already hit the road. But my husband doesn’t want to “start again and make another colossal mistake”. His words, not mine. I say we learned a lot, won’t make the same choices again and time is short.
    So, what do you do when one person is ready to go….and the other isn’t? I’ve been lobbying for us to get moving (both literally & figuratively) for over a year now.

    Reply
    • Jen says

      August 20, 2016 at 8:29 am

      I’m in this boat too! Trying to convince my partner to live dangerously with me, to give up the ordinary and travel while we still have a bit of youth & time. I feel your frustration, truly.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. A Simple Action Plan For When You Feel Like Crap | IMPOSSIBLE ® says:
    August 23, 2019 at 2:00 am

    […] you’re not dead, the game is not over. It’s only “over” when you give […]

    Reply
  2. The Art of Perseverance - Freelance Latin America says:
    July 5, 2021 at 12:00 pm

    […] matter how hard, regardless of the obstacles is an almost guaranteed success. And although there is nothing wrong with leaving a path or a tactic after deeply evaluating if it is worth your time and energy; here we will talk about […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

the-impossible-shirt

Hi, I'm Joel Runyon


I created IMPOSSIBLE to help people push their limits by taking on impossible challenges and living a good story.

Follow @joelrunyon

My I recently finished running 7 ultra marathons on 7 continents and raised nearly $200k for Pencils of Promise. Read more about my story here.

Subscribe & Listen To The Podcast

How To Start A Blog Walkthrough

how-to-start-a-blog-guide
impossible abs

no-excuse-workout

cold-shower-therapy

The 777 Project

THE IMPOSSIBLE FAMILY

  • IMPOSSIBLE • Blog + HQ
  • IMPOSSIBLE Fitness • Tutorials & Training
  • IMPOSSIBLE Podcast • Podcast
  • IMPOSSIBLE X • Businesses
  • IMPOSSIBLE.org • Giving
  • IMPOSSIBLE Gear • Apparel + Supplements

"How To" Guides

  • How To Start A Blog: The Definitive Guide
  • How To Start A Podcast: The Definitive Guide

Looking For Something?

About The Impossible Shirt

IMPOSSIBLE®

  • Impossible X®
  • Impossible.org
  • Impossible Gear™
  • Impossible Fitness ®
  • Impossible Nutrition ®

RECENT

  • Vulnerability is Overrated
  • 12 Things I’ve Learned From Running IMPOSSIBLE ® For 12 Years
  • How I Got In The Best Shape of My Life at 35
  • Why I Created Impossible Sleep™
  • It’s almost too late

Inspiration

  • An Unexpected Ass Kicking
  • How Bad Do You Want It?
  • The Iron & The Soul
  • The Only 2 Real Excuses Why People Refuse To Take Cold Showers

We Built a School! (2012)

impossible-pop-school

And We Built 7 More! (2017)

777-project

| Copyright © 2022 | Built on Genesis & Hosted By BlueHost | Affiliate Disclosure | An Impossible X Company

IMPOSSIBLE®, the IMPOSSIBLE® logo, IMPOSSIBLE HQ®, IMPOSSIBLE X®, IMPOSSIBLE Nutrition®, and IMPOSSIBLE Fitness® are registered Trademarks of IMPOSSIBLE X LLC.

The IMPOSSIBLE List™, Push Your Limits™, and Cold Shower Therapy™ are trademarks of IMPOSSIBLE X LLC.