How to Know if You Should Quit

"I've spent two decades studying behavior: Why do people stick with habits that hurt them? Why do they abandon goals that could help them? And over and over, I see the same pattern: People mistake the signal of progress for the feeling of progress. When effort starts to feel heavy, boring, or discouraging, they assume the strategy isn't working. They confuse discomfort with failure. So they quit-often at the exact moment persistence would have paid off."

"Researchers placed rats in a cylinder of water. With no apparent escape, the animals initially swam for a short time before giving up. But when the researchers intervened, briefly rescuing the rats and then placing them back into the water, the animals swam far longer on the second attempt. What changed wasn't the water. It wasn't the rats' physical ability. It was their belief. The expectation of rescue altered how long they endured."

Many people quit too soon, abandoning goals just as progress becomes harder to feel. Effort often grows heavy, boring, or discouraging even as objective progress continues. People frequently mistake the signal of progress for the feeling of progress and confuse discomfort with failure. Experimental evidence shows expectations alter endurance: animals that experienced brief rescue swam far longer on subsequent attempts. Hope does not make tasks easier but makes endurance possible. When people believe effort might lead somewhere, they tolerate discomfort longer. Breakthroughs commonly arrive after the moment when persistence feels most unbearable, so timing of quitting determines outcomes.

Read at Psychology Today