Quitting or Giving Up - Adele Chee Coaching and Mentoring

As a society, we are conditioned to have other people’s opinion in our consideration - even on matters pertaining solely to ourselves; and unfortunately, the general public’s view of quitting and giving up is that they tell a bad story.

Instead of good and bad, my interpretation of these two words comes from the angle of proactive or reactive decisions.

Proactive decisions
My childhood ambition was to be a dentist because I love smiley faces and envisioned a world filled with smiles. As I got older, I realised that firstly, it’s tough to be a dentist when you are not bright enough to land yourself a scholarship nor have wealthy parents to pay for your medical school tuition fees. Secondly, even people with beautiful teeth don’t smile as much because of a whole lot of other things going on in their lives.

So, I gave up the dentistry dream to find a different path to bring smiles to people’s lives. This led me on the path of a global marketing career for almost 2 decades before pivoting into coaching. It was a career path that has allowed me to bring smiles to parents, children, teenagers, babies, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) sufferers and their families through the products I’ve launched and marketing campaigns I’ve executed in the ice-cream, skincare and medicine sectors.

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When I set out on my corporate world adventure, I didn’t quite know what to expect. After a few years navigating through this excitingly dynamic universe and learning its ways, I knew that I would be saying goodbye to it someday. This was because a lot of what goes on in this sphere doesn't align with my values and beliefs.

Realising this early on has helped me persevere in a way that focuses my thoughts and actions to leverage the things of the industry that did align with my passions and priorities. This awareness also contributed to me having clarity of my corporate life goals - the position of influence to reach that drives positive change, setting personal time frames and planning my exit strategies.

Hence, having accomplished what I have set out to achieve in the corporate realm, it was only right to quit and move forward to the next phase as planned.

Reactive decisions
Despite being passionate about people, I unfortunately have had to give up on some relationships for a couple paramount reasons - they were toxic and one-sided. These were relationships that I couldn’t seem to effectively add any value to, and were draining energy from me. They were difficult decisions to make, as it took every fibre of my being to come to terms with the conclusion, in order to eventually move on without regrets.

Perhaps on a slightly lighter note, I have also given up on books, courses and recipes to name a few - some even before I started! Maybe I’ll come back to them one day but for now, the hope is dim.

So, I can’t quite say that quitting or giving up is a good or bad thing, but I can certainly say that being able to proactively decide on quitting or giving up is a better position to be in. This is because a proactive decision is a considered decision that takes into account your values, strengths, purpose and vision.

Don't miss a spark!