"What if the job is terrible? What if I'm miserable there?" asked a woman who was thinking about quitting her job. "I tried just to reframe it for her into one where you could think about them both as active decisions in a more in an easier way," she said. She had already had a job offer which puts her in an even better position for this decision, he added. 'We're much more tolerant of the losses that we take from sticking than we are from switching'
What if becoming a better quitter was something to aspire to?
Annie Duke thinks it is. She’s a national science foundation fellowship winner and bestselling author who’s used her background in psychology to become a successful poker player and business advisor. Lately, she’s spent time studying the power of quitting, a tool she argues is as important as grit, resilience, and sticking it out.
The science shows we’re not great at it. We don’t fire quickly enough. We don’t quit soon enough. We don’t end relationships early enough. Why? Well, identity and goals play a role. Along with many of the messages our culture sends that err more on the side of stick it out than on the side of quit and try something else.
Annie’s compelling book on the topic is titled, Quit: The Power of Knowing When to Walk Away. It’ll help you see how sticking with something that’s not working is just as much a decision as quitting. You’ll begin to view quitting as an important tool to add to your decision-making toolkit, especially when you understand better when to use it.
Episode Links
Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
To Change, or Not to Change? Just Flip a Coin
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
The Team
Learn more about host, Gayle Allen, and producer, Rob Mancabelli, here.
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