Don’t withdraw, don’t surrender, don’t give up.
Roméo Dallaire
Never withdraw and never surrender to negative thoughts and to unwelcome criticism. Never surrender to your mistakes and heap fulls of failure, or to anything else that forcibly intends to suffocate your great spirit. Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up on yourself, or your dreams, or the process of getting to where you want to go. Don’t ever withdraw, surrender, or quit.
Giving up is final. It is tragic. It is an unforgivable act, but thankfully, as you draw your next breath you have the opportunity to begin again. You have a chance to push ahead, to fight for things that matter, and to inspire others along the way.
There is no reason to quit. You can take all the time you need to gather yourself, regroup, refocus, reenergize and get help by reinforcing your resolve. There is no reason to quit. No reason to give up. No reason to hang your head low and dwell on the past. There is no reason to do anything in one single leap, to succeed in a day, a month or a year. Push as hard, and as much as you are able, and let life take what shapes it wishes to take. Remember that you do not control the outcome, you cannot determine the end, but you can grown and learn and become great, and you can remain faithful to being and doing what you set out to do.
You are meant to be faithful not successful. Success is a funny thing. One woman’s success is another woman’s nightmare. Success, or lack of success should never be the reason why you stop, or abandon what you know is right.
There are many things you are able to do. There are many alternative responses to quitting, and they are more forgiving than the jittery, unpredictable, teeter totter flow of I can and I quit. You lose all your momentum in quitting. You burn bridges that don’t need to be burned. You run and hide, from something that doesn’t require you to.
But there is a better way, a chance to keep going. Just step back for a moment. Do whatever you need to do but never withdraw, surrender and never pack up your things, take your ball, and head home.
You’ll hate yourself for doing so. You’ve done it before and you know how dejecting and how silly it feels years later. Forgive yourself. Have patience with life. Have hope in the future, and stay the course.
You have no other alternatives anyway, so its wise to stay the course, than to stop and not have a course at all.
Don’t quit. Not today and not now. There is nothing worse that wasted talent, and yours particularly needs a chance to blossom. Your gifts are meant for others. Give them a chance. See your efforts til the end.
