Calling it Quits - Casey Palmer, Canadian Dad

Last updated on April 5th, 2021 at 08:40 am

Calling it quits is easy. Why commit to something you really don’t want to do? Does it benefit you? Is there anything you’ll gain from being stuck in a situation you don’t want to be in?

That’s a question I face more often than I’d like to admit.

If you didn’t know, I’ve been attending a sewing class on Tuesdays—I figured that having more domestic skills to bring to the table would be useful now that I’m a married man, but starting with sewing may not have been my best decision.

In the first 4 weeks of the 8-week program, we learned a lot of the basics—how to thread a sewing machine, the different kinds of stitches available to us, how to sew in a zipper and so on.

The second half has been a little harder to digest. We’re in the middle of working on a 4-week project, and regardless of the gender of anyone in the class, it’s making a skirt.

Since I won’t seriously expect Sarah to wear anything I sew as a beginner effort in her regular wardrobe, I’m probably not as excited, motivated or driven as I could be to finish the project.

Realistically, I likely won’t.

But something in me refuses to quit. Somewhere inside of me, while I know that doing this right now might not see any immediate gains, but practice makes perfect. We never know the roads upon which we’ll travel in life, and the more skills you acquire, the better equipped you’ll be for whatever life throws at you!

I might not always be on time, and I might not even care that much for the project anymore, but I’ll see it through.

We’ve become so obsessed with finishing the race that we give up pre-emptively before we’ve given all that we can. If you need to get a report done by end-of-day Monday and you don’t, will you die? No. Your boss may be displeased. You may lose your job if it’s important enough—but you will live to fight another day.

If you don’t manage to get all your errands done in a weekend where you’re feeling particularly tired and worn out, will it be there end of the world? NO. People might be mad at you and you might need to play around with your schedule to get things done, but you will live to fight another day.

So never stop trying. Never stop being conscious of your schedule and only fitting in what’s actually feasible. But there’s no real shame in failure— you can’t possibly win them all!

No matter what you do, the Earth will still be revolving when you wake up. Beat yourself up all you want. Be angry all you want. But if you’ve learned anything today, I hope it’s this:

You’ll only be making things worse for yourself far more than you’re making anything better for anyone else.

Food for thought.

–Casey E. Palmer