The two concepts in the title of this post are a pair that many people (often including me) have difficulty separating from each other. To many people, quitting is synonym to failing. Not finishing a project is considered the same as being defeated by your task. Although I disagree with the view presented in the previous sentence, there is a fine line between quitting and failing. According to Thesaurus, to quit is to abandon or leave, while to fail is to be unsuccessful. Also, in the area between quitting and failing, we find giving up (often resulting in quitting), which is not usually looked upon as positive.
To me, quitting involves a planned, and thought out, decision, and can therefore be regarded as strength of character. Giving up, on the other hand, indicates weakness of character and giving in to circumstances. Giving up is often degraded to failure. But, more often than not, I find that my decisions to stop doing something is often based on, among other things, the thoughts and feelings that accompany throwing in the towel. I suppose decisions are always more complex than they seem.
When it comes to failure, that is mostly in the eyes of the viewer. Failure is mostly a label placed upon a project which has gone in the 'wrong' direction in the eyes of the observer. The results were not as expected, the people did not live up to expectations, etc. Expectations, expectations... We, as independent people, don't have to be bound by other people's expectations. We decide what, in our own lives, is failure, giving up, and quitting. This is something that I know can be very hard, and I am often having trouble with making those decisions myself (see my blog post about a tiny bit of that...).
The reason I bring this up is that I have decided to stop reading Emma by Jane Austen. I know that it is a classic, and I know I should probably love it (since I'm a girl and all), but it is just not the right time for me to read that book now (and it was going sooo slow...like syrup). Oh, look at me, making excuses... I am having a hard time making a decision and standing by it, but I guess that is part of growing up (at least for me :P). So, I'm moving on to other books without having Emma hanging over me, like for example Natascha Kampusch's story of the nightmare of her life: 3096 days.
Books read: 12
Pages read: 3451
PS: I am NOT going to apologise or make excuses for not having posted anything in a while. It is MY decision! (See, I'm trying to practice :P)
You could say that there lies wisdom in recongnizing you limits, and focusing your efforts where they will do the most good, although in the realm of littereature "do good" would equal "entertain you", perhaps while simulatniously providing some enlightment or new knowledge. (if you are lucky!) Therefore, quitting is not failing.
ReplyDeleteBut would it not then be even more wise to not even attempt something that will likely fail, or even might fail, especially if you cannot make any kind of assesment of the odds. But that would mean you never get to do something new, something unknown, and that would be boring beyond belief, yes?
Without failure, success means nothing.
There is also a kind of failure in needlessly pushing yourself through something for the sake of completeness (that's probably not a word, but yeah), if you do not gain anything from it! Unless you consider willpower something that can be trained, by doing characther-building, soul-grinding and downright unpleasant excersices. Although, if will is NOT an ability and your proficency in it cannot be increased, then the world suddenly becomes deterministic, and that's always annoying. Erm, so, there is no win or lose, only the epheremal constructs of thought and feeling, and if you cannot control yourself... Then you're likely to write a lot of words without saying much and then not coming to any satisfying conclusion! :-)