Art of giving up

Winners never quit! quitters never win!!

From the childhood we have been taught that we should not give up and continue with our hardwork till we attain the goal. Quitting is usually seen as a sign of weakness. There are lot of quotes about it. Is it true? I have shared my view on the same in this article. 

I have been participating in matrathon events for the past couples of years. Thanks to Chennai runners, I have learnt a lot from these marathons. Usually we think marathon is a activity where we push our limits to attain the goal and increase our never give up attitude. But everytime before start of major marathon event I hear from the organizers that "there is always another Marathon".

They say we should follow our body and never over exhaust ourself. When I registered for full marathon and could only do 32km, I was happy that I could stop rather than pushing myself out of my ability. 

During my trek to kedarkantha peak in himalayas there was a married couple in our team. When the girl faced ankle pain, her husband said "going to peak is our aim but returning back home safe is more important. We can come here again later" and they stayed at the peak base camp. To me it looked like more courageous decision than pushing themself in attaining the goal. 

This applies to everything in our life. Anything we do we must push our limits and do not give up without reaching the goal. But how far is the question. Knowing when to quit is an art. 

We must be learning about ourself to find the limit. Also we can use the feedback mechanism to fine tune the limit. Based on the results from the past we can slowly increase the limit. But it's possible only if we have repeated opportunity. Example: during marathon practice sessions we can slowly increase the distance / speed everyday to find the limit at which our body will  fail to cooperate and stop at that point.  Most of the time we will not have that flexibility and need to decide on the spot. But quitting is necessary at some point in time. Knowing more about ourself will help in finding the right time to quit. 

Real winners know when to quit!!!