Don’t quit while you’re ahead, that’s the worst time to quit.
Instead, quit ahead of time.
Meaning, decide you’re going to stop before you actually stop.
It’s easy to quit in the moment, to drop a habit because it’s just too hard to do it one day.
Taking the easy way out will only weaken you.
But if you’re feeling the need to make a change, schedule it. You can quit habits like you would quit a job. Look at your life, figure out why you need to make a change, determine what is going to replace this activity, and choose a date in the future to switch over.
I’ve done this a few times in my life, and just did it again.
Over ten years ago, I spent a year going without candy, cake, or ice cream. No ice cream on birthdays, no cake, no chocolate, no Halloween candy, no Christmas candy, nothing. I started it on a whim, but after a couple months, it was important to me to keep going. After about a year, I definitely felt like I had done “enough”. I’d proven to myself that I could do it, I’d gained a lot of health benefits, and I knew I could control myself going forward. So I picked a day, a week or two out, to allow myself to have candy, ice cream, and chocolate again.
The purpose in a scheduled quit date was to make sure I wasn’t quitting to give in to temptation. To make sure I was doing it in a healthy way.
This week I’m doing the same thing, temporarily, with lifting. I’ve been listening to my body and really felt that I needed a break from almost daily lifting. So I picked a day, a week later, and kept lifting. I made it through one more full week of my program, continued listening to my body. At the end of that, yesterday, I knew it was still the right decision.
So this coming week, no lifting. I’ll still exercise, but it will be easier.
And this is a short break. I’ll be back to lifting in two weeks at the most. I may return earlier than that.
While you wait for the actual quit date, you’ll either grow more sure of your decision, or realize it was just a moment of weakness.
Regardless, confidence comes from quitting ahead of time.