When is it time to quit?

I‘ve been thinking about quitting a lot lately.

I am one of those people that, when I commit to something, I will follow through with it, even if it feels like it isn’t working. Not that I’m unable to quit things, a short conversation with any of my exes would enlighten you in that regard.

But often, if I’ve committed to something, I feel compelled to see it through to the end, even if it’s not working, or if I’m not getting intrinsic value out of it. This often leads to feelings of resentment: I’ll grumblingly do my assigned task, but maybe not do as good a job as I should, because my heart, frankly, isn’t in it.

Yesterday morning I went for a walk on the Seawall with my iPod and a coffee. I tuned into an episode of Freakonomics, one of my favorite podcasts, called The Upside of Quitting.

In it, Steven Dubner, talks about two things that keep us from quitting: sunk costs, which are the time and money that we’ve already invested into something, and opportunity costs, which are costs for the future, meaning, for every dollar or hour you sink into doing something, that is one less dollar or hour that you can sink into something else in the future.

I get stuck on sunk costs. I think, oh, I’ve come so far, I’ve invested so much… I can’t quit now.

But what if it’s time? How long do you hang on for?

Let me put this into context. My business and, consequently, my life, is changing. Over the past year, I have begun to move more and more away from doing publicity work, and more and more towards doing teaching and training in social media marketing. I am now in a place where I only have a few publicity clients left, as around 80% of my income now comes from teaching. This is great. I love teaching, I love the new direction my career is taking.

But as it does so, I find myself feeling less and inspired to blog these days. As I move away from self-employment, my blog becomes less important in terms of it being a marketing tool. I’m not talking about the love that I have of blogging, as I love having this creative outlet. But perhaps there are other ways that I could express myself creatively.

My life has certainly been in a turmoil lately, primarily sucked up into a very stressful move that happened last week. Maybe my inspiration will return as my situation settles down and returns to normal…

So, gentle reader, I lay my cards on the table. In the name of transparency, this is where I’m at. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

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Rebecca Coleman

Social Media Marketing Strategist, Blogger, Author, Teacher, Trainer. Passionate foodie, mom to Michael, fueled by Americanos. I love my bike. Soon-to-be cookbook author. Localvore with a wanderlust.

Comments 3

  1. I’m self-employed but with a couple of full-time gigs. I certainly don’t need to blog all the time but I’ve found that one every couple of weeks has been useful for those times when someone need is obviously out there “sniffing my butt,” seeing how I am and how I might be of use some time.

    It says – I think – that I’m not desperate but I have something to say and, yes, I’m looking for money.

    So, perhaps it’s not an all or nothing thing…

    Good luck with your decision! (I think you’ve already made it…) 🙂

  2. You definitely have to go where your excitement and passion is.

    And, I have to say, if you stop blogging here, I will really miss it! Even if you only posted once a week, or once every couple of weeks, as Darren says, I think those of us who look forward to your tidbits and helpful hints would really appreciate it. I know I would. 🙂

    Blessings,
    Mary

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