American culture glorifies success and prioritizes safety.

It doesn’t make sense. Unless we realize we’ve bought into the eternal expedition for the fountain of youth. A belief that, if we drink the right stuff, we can live forever. Eternal success + eternal safety.

What we end up with, however, is regular disappointment. Because we are never successful enough and our safety is never secured. So we always need more money. Or growth.

That’s when we believe success and safety are actually working together. Often they aren’t.

We recognize that success often requires risk—and the safety priority makes us risk-averse. The two values create a paradox.

We know all of this. And then still measure our lives, evaluate our tenure, on how much success we have in the moment and how hard we work to preserve it.

It is the same for our institutions.

We measure them according to the same mythic standard. Success upon success and eternal fiscal security.

None of this is logical. But it is what we convince ourselves to think every time.

Why?

Because we’re afraid of any failure. And we only ever think about the present.

When we look at the long game, we know that it is better to fail and try something new than to expect the impossible. Because that’s what success in everything 100% of the time is: impossible. So we quit precisely because it has a greater chance of success. And to provide new security.

Get good at quitting.

Quit bad habits and poorly planned attempts to quit those habits.

Develop hypotheses and try new things. See what works. Then decide if it is worth continuing.

Smart people even quit things when they are successful. Because they are not aligned with their values. Or pull them away from the stuff that is more important.

We quit jobs for love, family, location, stress, and community. We choose to care for loved ones, try new things, or live in a different place.

Quitting seems to go against our priorities as a people. But it is also something that the most successful people get good at.

Quitting isn’t permanent.

Because life doesn’t end there. And it didn’t begin when we got there, either.

Life isn’t only at this moment. Nor is it a sequence of past successes.

Life is full of opportunities. And most of the time, we take them without thinking. We quit for better jobs. Or retire. Or do new things. We never call this quitting. But it is. So is reinvesting our time in new things, going on vacation, or making regular time for family.

We have such negative connotations around quitting. Just as we lionize perseverance. But we also value wisdom and cleverness. We know there is more—but guilt gets in the way. And so do fear and anger.

Quit well.

Not out of anger or spite. Or because we don’t get our way. Nor should we keep going when we are utterly incompatible.

But getting good at quitting, and quitting in the right way, is invaluable.

Quit the project when it has run its course. Then quit the freedom of staying home.

We can quit caring about the things we no longer have a stake in. Or when we must share responsibility for them.

Quit the irrational assumptions about success and safety. Power and control. Quit the focus on the past and the fear of the future.

New Year’s Resolutions are an example of quitting.

When we quit being unhealthy. And we decide to change.

It is quitting well. And for the best of reasons.

And yet, too many of us quit poorly. Such as when we are needed. When our voice has value. Or when we misunderstand the situation.

Our institutions need us to get better at quitting and joining—in leaving behind our weak assumptions and striving for ones that meet the challenge of the moment.

We need each other. So quit hiding.