For When You’re Ready to Quit

Every year, several publications pick a day in January and call it “Quitter’s Day.” According to Strava, the health-tracking app I’m using to track my couch-to-5k training (which I only started yesterday), today is the day when more athletes give up on their New Year’s resolutions. 

And according to National Today, Quitters Day already happened last Friday.

Yikes.

The desire to throw in the towel and give up happens to the best of us from time to time — especially to those of us who have shiny object syndrome, enter the New Year with hungry eyes, and have schedules that can only handle so much. I blame Dunning-Kruger for the desire to quit quickly. 

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a cognitive bias where people overestimate their abilities.

When David Dunning and Justin Kruger first started studying this, the scientists focused specifically on logical reasoning, grammar, and social skills. Since then, their findings have been confirmed across a much wider range of tasks including, you guessed it, business. 

I drew you a picture of what this mental process looks like on paper.

You start the year (or any new goal) thinking it’ll be possible, totally doable, and almost effortless. You’re confident and riding high with expectations and anticipation. What a THRILL! This will be YOUR YEAR! You’re doing it!

Then, January settles in. You get back into a rhythm, and old habits chime in. So do old trolls that reemerge in your mind telling you you can’t do something. Boy, are they wrong, but when you pair those toxic inner voices with the struggle to learn something new, you fall into the valley of despair or insecure canyon (two common names for this steep decline). This is where most people throw their hands in the air and say, “I’m out.” 

But the ones who don’t quit start to see something magical happen. Rather than settling into that cozy canyon, they grow and go back up the mountain. They acknowledge what they don’t know. They choose to learn. They invest in themselves. They take action. They try things. And then, they…

… land on more stable ground — the plateau of sustainability.

Growth takes work. It takes some inner struggle and outward action. I know you have the ability to silence those inner trolls and the motivation to keep moving up the mountain instead of quitting. But how? What does that look like? 

I’ll share with you, but first, a backstory.

Last September, I decided to focus more on my business Cruisin’ + Campfires. Since I’d been a freelance writer and digital agency for six years and a business coach for two years, it should have been easy, right? 

Not quite. Creating a product business is worlds different than creating an online course or writing copy for a client. But, in my peak of ignorance, I thought it would be faster than it has been to grow this ‘lil business. 

Pretty quickly, I realized how much I didn’t know. 

That last one got me especially stuck because I knew how to grow email lists and increase SEO traffic, but product-based businesses felt a little different. I was used to tapping into emotions, but with a product on hand, you have to balance those emotions with something that could be perceived as a commodity. It was a balancing act I knew I could manage but was muddied down in Insecure Canyon, feeling like the whole world could see me being an imposter in this space.

I’d taught this, but now walking the walk felt very different. Anyone ever feel that way? Rather than giving up on this dream, I got to work coaching myself out of this hole and continuing to move forward.

While the Dunning-Kruger effect might not be as cold-blooded of a killer as the notorious character it shares a similar namesake with (Freddy Krueger), it has the potential to kill your ideas if you settle into that trough of insecurity. 

Rather than letting that happen, here are five suggestions for avoiding the temptation to quit on your dreams. Will you roll up your sleeves with me and keep going?

I’m convinced that most people stay in this trough of insecurity because they think it’s the ending spot. They let toxic thoughts enter their mind. They listen to others who confirm those thoughts. Then, they throw up their hands and say, “I guess I’m not cut out for this.” 

However, when we recognize where we’re at on the Dunning-Kruger curve, giving ourselves grace is much easier. Everyone who has reached their goals has fallen into this spot at some point or another. It’s normal. You’re normal. Finding out what you don’t know is part of the process. 

Grace. 

Last week, I shared a powerful journaling exercise I walked through while at the jiujitsu gym with my kids. It was fast but potent and led to a thousand new lightbulb moments in a single sitting. 

My fellow co-author, Kristin Gudenkauf, also discussed this vision-clarifying process in depth in our bestselling book, Discovering Something Greater. We’ll be talking through this section and ideas today in part 2 of our 6-part virtual book club, and you’re invited to join us (it’s free, and you don’t have to have read the book yet to be part of it). 

Journaling on your vision can help you see the path forward. Rather than feeling defeated, you can take those feelings and remind yourself of why you started on this journey to begin with and what it looks like when you reach that plateau of sustainability. 

I’ve learned over my years of building businesses that there’s a whole lot I don’t know, and that’s okay. 

The more I learn, the more I realize there’s even more beyond the horizon to keep learning. And that’s the fun part, right? Learning allows us to see the roadmap for where we need to go. The more we know, the clearer we get. Keep seeking out those learning opportunities. 

Last year, I realized I wanted to learn more about how to enter the wholesale world, so I took Paper Camp, a course on wholesaling from my good friend, Katie Hunt. 

What learning opportunities are available to you?

Once you start learning, you’ll be filled with ideas. Those ideas can sometimes get you back to the starting point where you think you can take on the world and do EVERYTHING. We don’t want to get back there. We want to move slowly but methodically forward, creating good habits and a strong foundation to serve us on this path up the mountain. 

Enter: The rule of 100.

I’ve talked about this rule in depth in the past, but here is the shorter version — pick one strategy and commit to doing 100 reps. Want to grow your newsletter? Commit to writing 100 newsletters before quitting. Want to start running? Commit to logging 100 miles before giving up. 

By recalibrating what you need to do and then committing to 100 reps, you’re better positioned to keep going through the hard and get to that end goal rather than continuing to chase a dangling carrot with seemingly no end in sight. 

Relationships are currency in today’s noisy world. They’re what will get you introductions, get you noticed, get you heard. Building these strategic relationships can help you stay motivated in the hard times and have someone to celebrate with in the good times. 

I created a private community for paid Roadpreneur subscribers to discuss these details. I’ve formed some private messaging channels with others who get this lifestyle. And it’s why I’ve invested in my growth in spaces like The Prosper Network. 

If you’re ready to join for the cost of a cup of coffee monthly, let’s continue the conversation. We won’t let you quit.