Just Hang in There Mindset

Endurance has a good name and a bad press. The good name: persistence is the mother of nearly every achievement. The bad press: we praise hanging on so much that people hang on to the wrong things — the dead job, the dead argument, the plan that died years ago.

How to tell the difference? Not by the difficulty — both cases hurt. The signal is in the direction. Hanging on to a wall worth climbing hurts and yields; each month, however slowly, you are measurably higher. Hanging on to a wrong thing hurts and repeats; each month you are the same height, only tireder.

So audit your endurance yearly. Write down what hanging on has produced in the last twelve months — not effort, results. Progress excuses pain. Repetition does not.

And when you do decide to let go, do not call it quitting. Call it completing an investigation. The climber who climbs down from the wrong wall is not weaker than the one who stays. He is the one who looked.