I have a trend in my life. It has been with me since grade school. It goes like this…

When the going gets tough, when it stops feeling fun…QUIT.

Yep. That’s right. I’m a quitter. Quin the Quitter to be exact. And proud of it. It has always been my MO.

Piano lessons? Quit. 

Track? I quit after my first meet. (And I even medaled at it.)

Tennis? I quit the first week of school after attending the practices for the three weeks before school started.

P90x? I quit after doing it 60 consecutive days because I was getting too bulky. (That one was necessary.)

Diets? Just ask my husband about this one. On second thought, don’t.

But here’s the best part. I never feel any guilt about it. If I don’t like it, I’m over and out.

Here’s the look I give you before I tell you I’m going to quit…

Now the weird part is, I consider myself to be someone that likes to grow and learn new things. But I guess I only have a certain threshold of tension I like to handle in my growth opportunities. And if an experience causes me too much tension or stress, I say “Sayonara” and go on my merry way.

My friend Emily sent me a clip from the TV show ‘The Middle’ watch here that explains how I roll. Start watching at 17:30. It is hilarious!

But recently, I have hit an impasse in my life where there are challenging things I am experiencing, but quitting is not an option. And I am thrown off. Utterly and completely thrown off. Because my instinct is to turn and run and not look back. (Particularly when my children are acting up in a store. Just kidding.)

I keep thinking, I didn’t sign up for this. I can’t manage this. This isn’t very fun. And life is supposed to be fun, right? RIGHT?! Someone tell me that’s right. Please?!

But the truth of it is, I already know the answer. That isn’t really how the real world works. Well at least when you’re an adult…and I guess it is fair to say I have crossed into the adult arena. So I recognize a new way of thinking is necessary to develop; I am working to embrace a new identity. I call it…

Quin the Finisher (If I was a mobster, that might have a rather violent sound, but I’m not a mobster even though I’m fascinated by it so don’t think of it like that.)

And Quin the Finisher’s MO is quite different than Quin the Quitter’s. Instead of running from sufferings, this new girl recognizes that while they are no fun and scary, these sufferings can be beneficial.

As opposed to putting on my Nike’s and taking a run in the opposite direction of the struggle, I am working to sit down, look whatever it is in the face, and like my colleague Jackie (who is the toughest Taekwondo girl I’ve ever met) say, “Thank you, sir. May I have another?”

It’s not easy per se, but easy isn’t always better. Or right. It is just easy. And in the words of the Fray, “Sometimes the right thing and the hard thing are the same.”

So here’s to staying. And not quitting. Even if quitting is more fun.

CHEERS.

“Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

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