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What Did You Quietly Quit?
Recently, I recorded The NoCryZone episode built around the song I Quit Everything by Brazen Candor.
The central question was simple:
What did you quit?
Whenever I ask readers or listeners to examine their own lives, I always ask myself the same question, and apply it to my own life. This morning, I found another of my answers.
I was at the gym when I looked across the room and noticed a stack of jump boxes. If you’ve ever worked with a trainer, you probably know exactly what they are.
They come in different heights, and the idea is simple enough: jump onto the box, step down, and repeat.
Simple.
Not easy.
For several years, I had a trainer who insisted I do them. I didn’t enjoy them. In fact, I dreaded them. But trainers have a way of making you do the very things you’d rather avoid. That’s part of what you’re paying for.
Then COVID came. My routines changed. My trainer was no longer standing there saying, “One more.”
Without realizing it, I had quit doing box jumps. Nobody told me to stop. I just…stopped.
Standing there this morning, I realized something important. Quitting box jumps hadn’t improved my life. It hadn’t protected me. It hadn’t made me healthier. It had simply made me less fit, less explosive, and less conditioned than I once was.
So I walked over to the boxes.
I won’t pretend it was graceful.
I wasn’t nearly as proficient as I used to be. My legs didn’t respond the way they once had. My confidence wasn’t quite the same either.
And yes – honestly? I was reluctant.
Very reluctant. Shockingly reluctant.
But I jumped.
And then I jumped again.
I don’t plan to do box jumps every day. Three times a week is probably enough. But they’re back in my routine, and I know I’ll be better because of it.
That experience made me wonder how many other things we quietly quit.
Maybe you used to read every night.
Maybe you kept a journal.
Maybe you called your parents every Sunday.
Maybe you played an instrument, stretched every morning, prayed, volunteered, took long walks, or simply laughed more often.
Perhaps someone encouraged you. Perhaps someone expected it of you. Or perhaps it was simply a habit that made your life better.
Then, little by little, it disappeared.
No announcement.
No decision.
Just…gone.
Here’s the encouraging part.
Many worthwhile habits don’t need to be reinvented. They simply need to be resumed.
You don’t have to become the person you were overnight.
You just have to make the first jump.
So let me leave you with the same question I’ve been asking myself:
What have you quietly quit that made your life better?
Not because someone else wants you to do it.
Because your future self will thank you for starting again.
Sometimes progress isn’t found in discovering something new.
Sometimes it’s found in returning to something you were wise enough to do all along.
Aspire.
Be Less Reluctant.
Come Upwards with Us™
