I quit.

I think I probably say this to myself more often than I should. Whether it be the rigors of my current weight gain regimen, the ever increasing weekly volume of my training sessions, or just the vastness of learning the art of jiu jitsu; sometimes our goals seem insurmountable.

It seems especially pointed now. How hard does it feel just to drag yourself to workout? Whether you have a home gym or are doing push-ups in the park. I haven’t done jiu jitsu in four months. It’s going to be ugly. We have no idea what opening up our society will look like and we have continuous work to do on racial and social inequality.

In reality, my goals aren’t especially lofty. I’m not trying to become an IFBB pro or win IBJJF World’s. I’m literally just practicing to become better at practicing. So it would be easy to throw in the towel.

Interestingly, my big lofty professional goals I never doubt. The desire to see social change is without question. The word quit never crosses my mind. And those goals may be the hardest to surmount. But we will only know if we give it everything.

So how do we persevere when that little voice pops in? Practice. We just keep going. Habits are just skills and learning a skill requires practice. And the greatest skill development comes at the hands of deep practice. Practice that we sometimes struggle to grasp. Practice that can feel pointless. Practice that makes us say “I quit”.

So next time you are working on something that you want don’t be discouraged when that voice comes creeping in. Two opposing truths can coexist. And that truth that you want to quit might also be the clue that you are doing exactly what you should be doing in that very moment. Just don’t quit before the “miracle” happens.