The 2 Types of Quitting

“Quitters never prosper.”

“Never give up.”

“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.”

We’ve all heard these wonderful cliches about not quitting for years. They’ve been instilled in kids, internalized by adults and are regarded as common sense. But they’re also wrong most of the time.

Just ask high school football coach Kurt Hines.

Hines has been coaching for 24 years in Southern California. Last week, he posted a video announcing: “I just had a young man come in and quit, and I couldn't be happier.”

When you read that comment, you might think Hines is being insensitive or lacks compassion. But it’s just the opposite.

Hines said the kid wasn’t happy on the field, never smiled, never committed to the team and only did the minimum. When the coach confronted him, the player confessed that he was only there to make his family happy.

By quitting, the young man had finally done something for himself. He finally became mindful of his own feelings, which is a huge first step for any young adult.

“I told him, ‘I’m proud of you,’” Hines said. “His whole confidence changed. He smiled from ear to ear.”

The young man might be labeled a “quitter” by old-school traditionalists, but not all quitting should be viewed the same. There are really two types: Good and bad. And recognizing the difference is essential to our long-term success.

The good one is from above — when we are doing something only for others, when we are not really following our hearts. It can also be when we realize we are not making the progress we need in the short or long term and decide to cut our losses. The faster we reach this conclusion, the better we become. Take a bad book or movie. Often, we are worried about sunk costs, that we’ve already invested this time, effort or money so we can’t turn back now, but surrendering is often the smartest thing we can do in these scenarios.

The bad quit occurs when we give up when the going gets tough in something we truly love and don’t have the fortitude to endure a challenge. We know we will regret our decision later and are just allowing the short term to dominate the long. If we step away from the process for a moment and reflect, we then will gain the capacity to continue on.

Thanks to Coach Hines, we understand there are two kinds of quit.

We need to know how to handle each.