Giving up. We all feel like giving up once in a while. Sometimes the going seems to get too tough, we never feel like we are getting the break we are looking for. We fee like everything is conspiring against us. We are ready to throw in the towel. There are times when it feels like everything is against us or that everything we try, doesn’t work out or turns to crap. We begin to take this personally. We begin to feel like failures.
　　The only true failure is when you quit. When something doesn’t work and you have to try a different approach, that is not failure, that is learning what works and what doesn’t. Failure is when you fall down and don’t get back up. Failure is when you quit working and no longer put effort towards completing the task, that is failure. Failure is not a product of who you are but rather it is a result of your action or inaction towards a project. In other words, just because your idea did not work out this time, it does NOT mean the YOU are a failure, it only means that your idea did not work at this time.
　　But what happens when we quit? Nothing, that’s what. Nothing happens because everything stops. To really see what happens when you quit, we need to take a look at what happens when we are working towards something that is seemingly unattainable. When we are working towards that goal that is just out of reach, we are trying to bring together many different things in the world and we are trying to get them lined up with one another. These things are in movement and slowly taking their place to make your goal possible, you just don’t always see how they are falling into place. When you throw in the towel and quit, everything stops. Those things that were falling into place now have no where to go and everything just stops and falls apart. The problem is, you don’t know how close those pieces are to coming together. If they were to come together, all the parts of your goal would fit and you would have success. But when quit it simply ends and success may have been just around the corner but you will never know. You won’t know because your work towards your goal collapses.
　　True success is pushing through those times when we want to throw in the towel and quit. That is the only way we will see success, to keep pushing and striving when it is most difficult. But that can be one of the most difficult things to do because we feel that we are at the end of our rope. We feel that we have tried everything and that everyone and everything is against us. But when we push through those times, we are showing that we are not willing to give up, we won’t take no for an answer and we will only accept excellence.
　　To push through can take perseverance. Sometimes you may have to try anything you can, even little things because you may be at your wits end and out of ideas of what to try next or how to get around something. Other times, you may have to ignore everyone around you who keeps telling you that what you are doing is futile. Which reminds me of the old Star Trek quote, “Resistance is futile” and that is how we need to look at our goal.
　　These roadblocks, the times when we feel like giving up and quitting is the universe’s way of prodding and molding us. We are being shaped into what we need to be and the way we need to think to make our goal a success. Think of it this way, our goal is not strong enough, big enough, or have enough resources to stand on its own. We also are not strong enough, think clearly enough or have refined our goal well enough to present our goal. If we release our goal to the world as we first conceive of it then their would be so many holes in it that it would not work. It would fail and as true to human nature, we would internalize it and believe that we are failures. The roadblocks are there to shape and mold our dreams and ourselves to become stronger and better.
　　You could also look at those roadblocks as practice. The more you practice something, the better you get. The roadblocks are there to force us to practice and get better. The more we work at improving our goal, the better it and ourselves will become.
　　What else can we do instead of throwing in the towel and quitting? There are several things you can do to persevere, while simple on the outside, many can be difficult to implement. Here is a list of 5 things you can do instead of quitting.
　　Ignore the temptation to quit – When you begin to feel like everything is against you and you want to give up, stop. Don’t give into it. Just refuse to accept it. This can be the biggest key to pushing through.
　　Look for the holes in your goal – There is a reason that things aren’t falling into place, that reason may be that there are holes in your plan, seek them out and correct them.
　　Take apart your idea – Along with looking for holes, look at each part of your idea and see how it flows and what is missing or in excess.
　　Break your goal down into parts, make it less overwhelming – All of the different pieces of your goal and everything that has to come together can become quite overwhelming. This may be a big part of what you are feeling when you want to give up. Accept it for what it is and then break it into easier to manage pieces.
　　Take a break – save sometime for yourself and give yourself a rest, it doesn’t have to be all about your goal. By giving yourself a break, you may find that the ideas you are seeking will come to you as you rest.

　　Winston Churchill said it best, “Never…never, never, never give up!”