Knowing how not to give up is the first step of the battle. Your goals aren’t going to be achieved because you sat around and giving up all day long. They were achieved because you put in the work, even if it was tough to get up one more day and put in the work.
I’ve been there before. There were days when I felt decimated by life and couldn’t get up. I had no motivation and I didn’t want to do anything. Where I felt like the world was ending and there was no way that I was going to get out of it. The easier path was just to give up and call it a day.
It certainly is the easier path. While I don’t think there’s anything wrong with taking the easy way out, there’s something wrong with it if it gets in the way of your goals. Taking the easy way out to achieve your goals is a good thing. Taking the easy way out to avoid achieving your goals is a bad thing.
Part of life means that it’s going to be filled with tests that you have to pass. Those tests are what shows what you’re made of and get to see who you are. Your success isn’t going to be defined by what you do during the good years. It’s defined by how you interact against the bad years.
Part of that is knowing how to not give up. Believe me when I say I’ve been there. I took job offers way too early before, I gave up on accepting additional interviews, the whole nine yards. After a year passed, it’s made me regret those decisions so much. Fight until there’s truly nothing left to give.
How to Not Give Up
One way to not give up is to SMACK that social share button and post to your favorite social media! What better way to share the information than for your friends to get value out of the article? Do it for them!
In seriousness, let’s get into the nitty gritty how’s.
1) Regrets are Real After You Give Up
I wish I could tell you I made perfect life choices. I’m not going to lie to you and give you the rosy picture as a lot of other people do and say that I made choices that made me the winner every time. I’ve made my fair share of bad choices. It was only after I said yes did I realize that I messed up and made the wrong move.
I was running *away* from something and not *to* something. That’s not the right recipe for the right relationship. I gave up too quickly. When all I had to do was stick it out for 3 – 6 more months and all of the problems would’ve been gone. If you stop doing something because you want to give up, that’s bad.
That’s when you know your decisions are going to fill you with regrets. Part of knowing how to not give up is knowing when you’re going to be filled with regrets. It will take more effort and months of trying, but once you get there, it’ll all have been worth it. Learn from my mistakes.
2) Figure Out a Solution to Not Give Up
There are many things you can do besides giving up. Maybe you could take another job or you could look for another relationship, or a hundred other things. You could work and negotiate with your boss and see how the working condition can be made better. There are other things you can do besides throwing in the towel.
It takes a creative person to come up with solutions. However, part of life is dealing with how to solve problems in a creative way. That lets you get what you want and lets the other side get what they want, as well. There’s always people out there who’ve gone through what you’re going through right now.
And they’ve taken steps in order to get to where you want to be. Make sure to exhaust all your options. Remember that there are plenty of options for you to take. Very rarely are your choices broken down to two. Either stay or to leave. There’s more than one way to skin a cat.
3) Think About The Greater Purpose
When you figure out what or who you’re actually doing it for, then you know how not to give up. There’s a reason why you’re in the current situation right now. You felt like the position you’re in currently was a step up from before. You thought that the current position was going to get you closer to your goals.
Then somewhere along the way, something changed and that’s no longer the case. Your goals took a back burner. However, while the situation is not good enough to get you to your goals, that doesn’t mean that your goals have changed. Whatever your goals are, there’s a greater purpose.
It could be for your family. My dad retired in December 2021 after working for the company for 36 years. Along the way, he’s told me that he could keep going even through the tough times because he had a family to take care of. Find out who or what you’re fighting for. It’s going to have been worth it by the end.
4) Have a Backup Plan
Having a backup plan is crucial in knowing how to not give up. Life is rarely a straight line. It throws curveballs and not just when you least expect it. They throw curveballs at the last minute. In late 2021, I received a job offer that is the best job offer I’ve ever seen in my entire life.
I had to reject 2 job offers in order to get there. However, if the job offers didn’t work out, I was going to continue working at my company, get my bonus in February 2022, and figure out what to do then. Most likely, I would have preferred to have been laid off so that I could regroup and find my options.
There are always alternatives and plan B’s to everything. It’s your job to find out what backup plans there are out there. You are NEVER going to be at a point where you have to make a decision in 2 seconds or the whole world is going to crumble down. Be picky. Don’t be me who thought I was desperate when I actually wasn’t.
5) Let Out Your Emotions
When you want to give up, it’s because your emotions are running so high. All of that stress and emotions are building up inside you during the day. Therefore, with all that emotions and stress, there needs to be an outlet for when you let out your emotions. Personally, I go to a private place and yell.
Or I work out and rid myself of that stress that I don’t need in my life. Right now, your feelings are so pent up. Your emotions are all the way to your head that there’s an outlet to let out all of that emotions and stress. It makes a huge difference. Your mental health can’t be taken care of unless you take care of your emotional health first.
Find a place where you can safely scream and yell at the top of your lungs. Or where you can tire yourself out with playing sports or working out. If you want to know how to not give up, you need to know how to manage your emotions. The more you can mange your emotions the better your life will be.
6) Going Elsewhere May be Worse
If you think that your bad environment is going to be fixed by going somewhere else, remember that the new place can be even worse. They may be even more demanding than where you are currently. The grass is always greener on the other side until it isn’t.
As an example, one coworker VP was getting paid $95k base + $35k bonus. However, she was fed up with the horrible work life balance and she moved companies. For a whopping $150k + 50k bonus. Hurray! Right? Wrong. She was miserable after 6 months and had to switch jobs in just six months.
Even if the money is better, the new place just may have a worse work life balance. If you think the situation can’t get worse, think again. Companies are great at figuring out how to make employees feel miserable. Know how to not give up because you may just make the biggest mistake of your life.
7) It May Get Better
When I left my prior company, I left because of an absolutely horrible boss. It was so bad that 80% of analysts had left the department and senior vice presidents complained to upper management that fell on deaf ears. Therefore, I couldn’t take it anymore and so I left the company.
However, guess when they swapped out the bad boss for an even better one? That’s right! Literally at my last day, they swapped him out for a better boss. It was too late for me to back out but I really wanted to back out. Don’t give up so quickly because you never know if it might get better.
And it might get better sooner than you think. All you may have to do is withstand a couple more months before experiencing heaven. Don’t get so short-sighted that you lose the bigger picture here. This may just be a tropical storm you have to withstand before you get to see the light of day.
8) Meditate to Not Give Up
There’s no doubt there are clear benefits to meditation. It calms your nerves, stress levels, and helps you think clearer. Meditate more often and it will be harder to give up as a result. I meditate once a day for at least 10 minutes. It helps me clear my head, breathe some air into the lungs, and practice mindfulness.
You don’t tackle every day through your physical strength. You tackle the day through your mental strength and clarity. It doesn’t seem like it makes a difference until it does. When I’m going through a stressful situation, I would have an insane amount of brain fog. I see things much clearly now.
Meditation is a huge differentiator to your mental health. Even just 5 minutes a day helps out in more ways than one. You don’t need a fancy app to do so, as well. You just need to sit on a comfortable surface and then start meditating. Your mind clears up much more easily the more time you do this for.
Meditation prevents you from giving up so quickly.
9) Evaluate Your Situation When You’re Calm
When we want to give up is when we are emotionally charged. The decisions we take are completely different from the decisions we would’ve made when we are calm. Lower and steady your heart beat then evaluate your situation then. See if you still feel the same way. There’s little chance that you will.
On one day, I wanted to yell at my boss because of how much he’s been angering me. Then another day, it feels a little better. When you’re calm, you get to see how you should be acting. Don’t make a decision in the heat of the moment. They rarely work out the way you would want it to.
Make a decision when you are calm. If you want to know how to not give up, evaluate your situation when you are calm and collected. For me personally, I think the best when I’m on an empty stomach. When my stomach is full, my emotions become out of whack. Find out what calm means to you.
Knowing How to Not Give Up is Crucial
The person who became successful became successful because they got up just one more time. Peter Jones had lost everything by the time he was 28 years old. Now he’s an iconic billionaire businessman. He didn’t give up after he lost everything, he still had faith and kept going.
Be stubborn in not giving up. It’s going to give you the staying power to live to fight another day for one more day. No matter how much someone knocks you down, you still get up just one more time. Until you make it. That’s the kind of stubbornness you need to be successful.
Do you know how many times I wanted to give up on FIRE and order a brand new Tesla and replace my beater car? Or how many times that I just wanted to stop spending money on investments and rather blow it on one big trip to Europe? Plenty of times and more times than I can count.
However, I kept on going and I’m still going. It’s becoming easier. With a new job that came with a big fat raise, I know it’s going to become even easier in pursuing down the path to financial freedom. Where work becomes an option and a choice, rather than a necessity.
When you figure out how to not give up is when you figure out the key to success. The person who put in intense work for 2 years is nothing compared to the person who put in good consistent work for 20 years. Most people don’t become successful in 2 years, anyway.
How to Not Give Up Shortlist:
- Regrets are real after you give up
- Figure out a solution to not give up
- Think about the greater purpose
- Have a backup plan
- Let out your emotions
- Going elsewhere may be worse
- It may get better
- Meditate to not give up
- Evaluate the situation when you’re calm
