14 Comments

Pivoting > quitting. Such a simple reframe that makes all the difference to the stubborn. One of my earliest posts was about my struggle to decide to drop from a marathon to a half. In hindsight it was the right decision but it felt like quitting to begin with.

Lots of perspective in this Kyle.

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Appreciate it brother. Going to check that post out!

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I noticed you did before seeing that, I appreciate it 👍

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You know in the military we refer to quitting as advancing to the rear.

Your Twisting challenge is a good example of, gulp, understanding your limitations and working within them and then overcoming them.

You are kind to provide alternative movements. I am growing to see my inability with some of the movements as an opportunity to catalog my (many) shortcomings. In the reverse burpee challenge my lack of hip mobility constrains me, as it does in Twisted. So I’m working daily on hip mobility. Have I quit? No, I’m regrouping and training to return and fight another day.

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I’m really proud of being able to trick you into becoming a quitter…

haha you’re the man Marshall. Thank you

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Excellent piece. Well thought out and worth everyone reading (especially us “tough it out” cement heads).

Made me think about:

Discomfort vs. actual pain.

Living to fight another day.

The importance of training for failures- not training to failure but training for when things fail. While there is a lot of value in what you do after the failure happens if you don’t train for failures you may not know what it looks like when it’s developing.

The shock of being in the failure can lead to abandonment quitting (if you’re lucky and not dead). But when you can see the creeping signs that a failure will happen you can purposefully quit, or to use your word “pivot”.

In the diving world you can “call the dive” before it’s a full on crisis.

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Man, thank you for the feedback but even more so for the thoughtful reflections.

The importance of training FOR failure rather than training TO failure is such a great distinction.

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Pivoting is such a great way to reframe quitting!

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I’m not a quitter bro, I’m just a pivotter…

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Haha! Exactly!

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This is brilliant Kyle! 👏 I agree that PERSISTENCE is a success superpower. But when I coached people suffering from burnout who didn't want to be a "quitter", I encouraged them to consider whether fleeing a burning building was a weakness or the heart of wisdom.

Thanks for helping to reduce the shame of making a strategic retreat which we all must do at certain points in most of life's struggles.

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Appreciate you Baird! Love your analogy with the burning building too. Great point

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Accepting that quitting is difficult can be a challenge. Understanding our path through life's adversities is what gives us strength.

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❤️👊🏻

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