Psychology Articles

When To Give Up

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When should you throw in the towel and give up? The short answer is never. I’m reminded of the start of the movie ‘Gladiator’ where Quintus says “People should know when they’re conquered” and Maximus replies “Would you Quintus? Would I?” Refusing to surrender means you still have that internal striving and it means you still have hope.

What matters is the internal state of being, not the external conditions you are trying to make come to fruition. If you can differentiate these two things then changing direction in your life will be easier for you to do when it becomes clear that a current striving is not working out, because you can take that same passionate striving, if you have it, to a new endeavor. Giving up is not really giving up, it’s just wisely moving on in order to develop yourself in a channel that gives you a better chance of success.

If you haven’t lost that internal striving and you genuinely believe you are on the right path despite the lack of external results, keep going in spite of the doubters. The only person you really need to believe in you is you.

You don’t lose hope because you fail, you fail because you lose hope. As long as you can keep your hope alive and have the passionate yearning to keep growing and developing you can never fail, you can only change course, and you will look back on your life and see obstacles along your journey where others look back on their lives and see dead ends.

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