On Persevering vs. Removing the Unnecessary
To keep going or to quit and make room for better things
Something I’ve been hearing lately, mainly by minimalists, entrepreneurs, and productivity gurus, is this idea:
“If it’s not a heck yes, it’s a heck no.”
The idea being that when you have the option to do something, if you’re not extremely excited to do it and there’s not a single doubt about doing it, you should say no and eliminate it from your life. Time is extremely valuable, so you should spend it doing the things that provide you the most value in life as much as you possibly can. It’s a very utilitarian way of looking at things.
I’ve certainly had great success implementing this into my life. There were some things that I enjoyed a little, but overall were more work than they were worth that I realized I could simply eliminate from my life to reclaim that time to put towards something I love.
This is all well and good, but after applying this concept for a while I’m left with some questions.
What if something isn’t a heck yes anymore?
Do I apply this principle and drop it completely and move onto the next new shiny thing that gets me excited?
Do I change everything if I realized my wants have changed?
Or, instead, should I persevere through what may be merely a temporary dry spell in motivation until the enjoyment returns?
I’m not here to say “don’t do X, do Y instead,” or to suggest that one of these things is always better than the other. More than that I’m trying to explore the balance, and find the place right in the middle of the apparent dichotomy where the real truth resides.
Nothing worth doing is easy
What I’m trying to get at here is finding the balance between knowing when to persevere and push through toward a goal because the goal is worth the difficulty and when to quit because the goal no longer has the value it once appeared to have.
Obviously, we shouldn’t quit just because something gets hard. I heard from my dad constantly growing up, “nothing worth doing is easy.” Anything that’s worth doing is going to require effort to achieve. It’s a matter of sacrificing the short-term pleasures because the long-term goal significantly outweighs the sacrifice, even if the moment is difficult.
Conversely, at what point should we reevaluate the long-term goal and determine whether or not the outcome is something we actually still want. There’s nothing wrong with cutting your losses. Sometimes the best things in life come when we eliminate something from our lives that no longer brings us joy so that we can have the ability to find something that does.
I wish there was a clear-cut answer for this, but like many things in life, it’s likely different for each individual. You should determine what that balance is for you and try your best to live your life in such a way that agrees with it.
I started a project about a year and a half ago, and I’m getting to the point now where I’m thinking that it’s time to let it go and move on. It was a really good idea, and I know with more patience and perseverance it could come to its full fruition, but I’ve learned many things along the way and I don’t think it’s something I want to pursue any more, so I’m slowly letting it go so I can focus on other things. It feels like the right decision, and one that had been coming for a little while.
Hopefully my ramblings made some coherent sense, and maybe provided you with some valuable thoughts. If you have additional ideas or commentary, feel free to reply directly to this email or in substack! I’d love to hear any other thoughts on this idea.
Until next time