Spring Quitting
The vertical world.
Instead of limiting spring cleaning to our physical spaces in spring, why not add a practice of removing practices that are no longer serving us? Certainly, we can identify “bad” habits to eradicate with relative ease. But what about quitting things that seem to be helpful, productive or healthy? I don’t know about you, but to me quitting doesn’t have the same appeal when applied to “productive” or “passion” activities.
To make it tangible, I’ll share my quitting confessional.
October 2019 marked the end of an era. I quit climbing.
For the past 9 years, climbing was central to my life. I worked in the climbing industry, climbed several days a week, had climber friends, and vacationed to climb. I lived to climb and my identity was entangled with my climbing ability.
That fateful October found me in Yosemite for the sixth time. While getting a sandwich and wifi at the deli, a novel thought indelibly crossed my mind: “I’m ready to go home. I have shit to do.”
Prior to that moment, on any given trip, my mind was always occupied with actively climbing, planning the next climb, or how to make the trip longer. Yet my perspective on the world had shifted. I found myself more and more interested in the practice of yoga. My work at a start-up was providing intellectual growth I was craving. My body was waving the white flag from the laundry list of musculoskeletal injuries I had accumulated. Climbing didn’t seem quite so important anymore.
I haven’t sold my climbing equipment, and maybe I’ll focus on it again someday. But I’ve essentially quit. Quit the most defining activity in my life until now.
I want to be perceived as a gritty person. Someone who sticks it out when things are hard. Who does what he says he does. How can I coach others to achieve their goals if I myself aren’t high on the grit scale?
Yet what I’ve noticed in my own life, and in the lives of my clients, we change and goals change. If we rigidly hold ourselves to a “truth” that is no longer true, we’re actually holding ourselves back simply for the sake of consistency.
A slippery slope certainly exists here. If we don’t hold ourselves to our ambitions, won’t our lives fall into disarray? Races won’t be run? Goals will languish and collect dust?
The thing is that white-knuckling and gritting our way through things may produce results in the short term, but lasting change can only occur when we truly want to do something. When doing it lights us up inside and makes us go “Hell yes! THAT’S what I want my life to be about!”
Call it what you want. Passion. Purpose. Mission.
The semantics are less important than the wisdom that comes from knowing what’s right for us. In Jim Collins’ seminal Built to Last, he deconstructs visionary companies to learn what sets them apart and allows them to endure the test of time.
One commonality he discovered was that these companies create a CORE identity that persists through markets, over decades and changes in leadership. This core defines their values, how they make decisions and what they stand for. On the other hand, the ACTIONS the companies take may evolve depending on economic and market conditions.
“The real question to ask is not ‘Is this practice good?’ but ‘Is this practice appropriate for us-does it fit with our ideology and ambitions?’”
Instead of sticking things out simply to prove we can do something, or because we said we will, I suggest we follow the lead of visionary companies and get in touch with WHY we’re doing what we’re doing. Some questions we can use to check our thinking:
When I pursue _______, what values are being honored?
What is the cost? What must I say “no” to?
Who do I need be to pursue this goal?