I never became a Navy SEAL, because I QUIT BUD/s Class 200.

Some will stop reading at that statement alone.

And many would never start their story with such a clear admission of failure.

But quitting is not as simple as weakness, nor as neat as a flaw of character.

As is true with most things, a quitter’s actions cannot be folded nicely into moral categories. Quitting once or quitting again and again, does not imply you will quit forever.

There are times, undoubtedly when quitting is rightly considered cowardice. And there are times when it is rightly considered clarity.

As Epictetus said in his Discourses, one can walk out of a house filled with smoke. And of course, it is so. You take of a thing all that you can, until it exceeds your sense of the good. So to point at the exit and call it weakness?

No.

Sometimes it is frustration, rebellion, anger, impatience. Sometimes it is stepping out of a home filled with smoke. You cannot stay where you cannot stay. Regardless the logic.

And that cannot be weakness!

Therefore, quitting and quitter requires a redefinition.

It is not surrender.

It is Expression.

It is Recalibration

And Wisdom

And Growth

Quitting is often the wiser choice. Hardship can be a magnifying glass. An opportunity to place a life beneath the lens and see what swarms below.

Next Time: Recalibrate — The Broken Mask

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