Welcome to The Simplify Your Life Podcast, where we talk about how to create a life you won’t need an escape from! I’m Coach Simona, author of the book “111 Ways to Simplify Your Life”, and I’m glad you decided to tune in! In today’s podcast episode, we’re going to answer the question: “Why do I give up so easily?”, and I’m going to share with you my best tips on how to not quit everything you start.
Before we jump into my tips on how to not give up on things so easily, let’s first understand why we give up in the first place. Here are the top 10 reasons: Reason number 1 is Lack of discipline When you lack discipline, you may struggle to complete tasks on time which can lead to missed deadlines and you giving up on the things you were supposed to do.
You may find it difficult to prioritize your time and finish tasks effectively and this can lead to even more problems: ranging from feeling stressed and overwhelmed to not being able to make up for lost time, no matter how much you try. The second reason for giving up easily is Poor time management skills When we talk about poor time management skills, it’s important to note that it’s not all about doing things in a timely manner, but also about being able to see the full picture clearly.
For example, if you don’t plan your day accordingly, you may find yourself overthinking, procrastinating, or taking too long to finish a task that should be fairly easy to do. Poor time management skills can lead to giving up on things too easily, because you may feel like you’re not making enough progress, you’re not moving forward, and your tasks keep piling up on top of one another.
If you want to learn my secrets on how to prioritize your time for maximum productivity, check out my video on youtube at: youtube.com/coachsimona I will also leave a link in the description box below. Reason #3 for giving up easily is Having unclear or unrealistic goals
Let’s take a second to talk about goal setting. There are many ways to set goals but most of them don’t work, either because the goal isn’t clear enough or because it’s too high and impossible to reach, so the inevitable consequence is unfortunately, quitting. When you’re not sure what you’re working towards or what your “why” is: the reason why you do what you do, it can be difficult to continue putting in the work and you might be prone to giving up easily.
The next reason for giving up easily is Lack of self-confidence When you lack self-confidence, finishing even the easiest task can turn into a problem. You start doubting yourself, questioning every move, and overthinking instead of taking action. Lack of self-confidence robs you of your ability to take calculated risks. When you think about it, that makes a lot of sense: why even try if you’re just going to end up disappointing yourself or other people?
We often lack self-confidence when we’re disconnected from our true, authentic selves. We don’t feel enough as we are and no matter what we do, it never seems to matter. If lack of self-confidence is something that you’re struggling with, I recommend checking out The Self-Love Toolkit. It’s my proven step-by-step framework that will help you reconnect with yourself on a deeper level and start your self-confidence journey by getting to know, love, and accept every part of yourself.
If you want to learn more, just click the first link in the description box below or head over to: www.theselflovetoolkit.com Reason #5 for giving up too easily is Being anxious or stressed When we feel stressed out, anxious, or overwhelmed, it’s difficult to take action. For example, when you’re anxious, you may be worried about making the wrong choice or experiencing negative consequences. That, in turn, leads to analysis-paralysis and not being able to move forward.
When you let your negative emotions determine whether or not you move forward with your tasks, it’s fairly easy to throw in the towel and simply give up. The next reason you give up easily is Lack of motivation Lack of motivation can lead to not being able to finish a task and quitting on things easily because you find it hard to keep going.
When you lack motivation, you’re not excited to continue working toward your goals, and sometimes you may find it difficult to see the point of continuing, so you decide to give up instead. The thing about motivation is it’s fleeting. You may feel motivated one day and completely forget why you started the next day, so it’s important to have a deeper purpose and a set of healthy habits that keep you on track, but we’re talk more about that later on in this episode.
Reason #7 for giving up easily is Fear of failure Fear of failure is an interesting one. Some people say that fear of failure doesn't exist but I disagree. Fear of failure happens when you’re terrified of the negative consequences of your choices. That’s why many entrepreneurs don’t succeed: they give up too quickly because they’re afraid of what everyone else is going to think of them, if they fail.
They want to protect themselves, so instead of taking risks, they hold themselves back and decide to quit prematurely. The next reason why you might be giving up too easily is Lack of focus I think one of the biggest reasons we quit is getting distracted by all the external noise. I’m talking about social media, your colleagues, your family, friends: they all have their own ideas of how life should look like.
They’re all bombarding you with their opinions and you’re constantly flooded with new information, new narratives, new points of view. Until you become completely numb to the point of view that matters the most: your own. Lack of focus may also happen because you’re too distracted by technology, or you get easily excited by new ideas, but they start becoming boring and repetitive in a while, so you just quit.
Reason #9 why you give up easily is Struggling with burnout Burning out is a sign that you’ve been doing too much to the point of completely depleting your resources. Think of it as a battery: if you constantly working without finding any time to relax and recharge, you deplete your battery, and that leads to feeling burnt out. I’ve actually experienced three burnouts throughout my life, and I know
exactly what works and what doesn’t. So if you want a burnout recovery plan, check out my video at youtube.com/coachsimona or click the link in the description box below. The next reason for giving up easily is Feeling external pressure When someone expects too much or we feel pressured to do something, we may sabotage our own success and choose to quit instead.
That often happens when we don’t want to disappoint our boss at work or we feel like our romantic partner wants too much from us and we can’t give them what they want, so we choose to give up to spare ourselves the potential embarrassment. Okay, now that we’ve discussed the 10 possible reasons why you give up easily, let’s get into my tips on how to stop quitting.
My first tip is to Break down your goals into smaller, manageable tasks It’s so much easier to give up on something when we feel stressed or overwhelmed by its complexity. So here’s a fun little exercise you can try to break down even the most tedious task into small, manageable chunks: Take a piece of paper and write down one of your goals or one of your daily tasks. Now, think of the first step you need to take to achieve it. Then, the next one, and the next one.
Break it down as much as possible, so that you can focus on one step at a time and prevent your future self from quitting. My second tip is to Find something you like about your task at hand As humans, we have the tendency to focus on the negative, because it increases our chances of survival. So we need to trick your brain into finding the task at hand enjoyable, or at least interesting enough to build momentum. One way to do that is to substitute “have to/must” with “choose to.”
For example, let’s say you’re used to saying to yourself: “I have to do the laundry today” so instead of doing it, you decide to procrastinate. Now, I want you to say to yourself: “I choose to do the laundry today” and if it doesn’t sound convincing enough, you can add a reason why you “choose to” do it today. Our conscious mind loves rationalizing, so coming up with logical reasons will help you move into action quickly.
For example, I choose to do my laundry today, because I want to have fresh, clean sheets. This, of course, can be applied to all kinds of tasks, including complex projects at work. One more thing you can do to start liking the task at hand, is to find something you enjoy about it or some benefit of doing it. For example, let’s say you need to design your new website,
but it seems like a daunting task. What do you enjoy about the process? Is it picking the colors or maybe coming up with different font combinations? Or maybe think of one of the benefits of designing a new website: making it easier for your customers to interact with you and have a better experience on your blog. Whatever it is, take some time to reflect and come back when you’re done.
My next tip on how to not quit on the things you start is to Celebrate your wins We often give up on things because we don’t reward ourselves along the way. Our brains are wired to seek pleasure over pain, so they will always default to something that gets us excited instead of doing something that we find difficult. By celebrating your wins you’ll be able to pause and reflect on the hard work you’ve already done and how that has impacted yourself and others.
The thing about winning is that we often don’t celebrate until we reach that massive, 10-year goal. And even worse: if we don’t reach it at all, we feel like a failure. One easy way to combat that is to start celebrating the small wins. For example, for a person who has anxiety, a small win would be to do something towards achieving that big, scary goal, every day. Or for someone with depression, a win could be getting out of bed in the morning and deciding to go for a walk by the beach.
Don’t compare yourself to a version of you that doesn’t exist. You’re here, now, and you’re doing the best that you can. And that is enough. Besides, I want you to remember that quitting is a choice. It's a decision to give up on something, rather than pushing through the challenges and obstacles along the way. And while quitting may offer you relief, it can also lead to a life full of regrets and missed opportunities.
So, at the end of the day, the only question left to ask yourself is this: Will I regret giving up? And choose NOT to quit this time. Thanks so much for tuning in! If you enjoyed this podcast episode, please like it, subscribe, and I’ll see you in the next one!