Quitter

Quitting.

Adequate if not ideal fodder for Monday morning considerations before stumbling from bed. Quitting that is. Quit the demanding and uncomfortable exercise program since it means I have to get up RIGHT NOW. Quit shaving, showering and perhaps brushing my teeth in the morning for the same reason. Quitting my job so I have more time for exercise and Facebook and then it doesn’t matter when I shower or what my breath smells like. For me, it’s not an issue of cavities – I’m genetically resistant and I eat a lot of spicy food. I’m safe. Its just halitosis I’m concerned with. If I stay in bed long enough, everyone leaves except the dogs and the smelly breath playing field is pretty level.


Regardless of the fact that under the covers in the dark on Monday morning before coffee may not be the most rational reasoning environment. There is good reason to consider the idea of quitting. There is a discussion in my head over this. It’s not so much an issue of staying or leaving my current employment. Especially considering my official lack thereof. It’s more about how much effort I put into things I don’t like doing in order to support my ability to put effort into the things I do like doing. Can I like what I’d rather not do because it lets me do what I love?

This is the essential question Jon Acuff asks in his recent book, “Quitter.” I just finished it. It’s a good book that I tentatively recommend. I recommend it not because I agree with everything and not to people without BS detector. I found the book encouraging. I read it last week and feel in retrospect that it was a useful expenditure of time. It helped me to like what I don’t so I can do what I love. I fix and build and coach and sell so I can write and share and meet and talk and create.

I spent most of my work efforts this week putting bathrooms together. Other people’s toilets and wax rings and the ensuing residues, other people’s old, crusty hair clogs in sink drains and contorting my body in unnatural positions under sinks while they drip on my glasses is not how I like to generate income. I would much rather get paid to write or teach people how to brew coffee or watch my wife walk in front of me in the grocery store.

Some of the best stuff in the book:

1. “Crush the discussion with a decision.” If you want to be a whatever, decide when, how often and how much. Once the decision is made, ignore the voices in your head that want to discuss with you the other things you could use the time for (sleeping, chores, reading, etc.). They were not around when the decision was made. Ignore them for a month, then re-evaluate. Great advice.

2. “90% perfect and shared with the world changes more lives than 100% perfect and stuck in my head. I think this may be the best forehead flick I got from this book. I can spend hours perfecting something and waiting to put it out there until it gets stuck in a cyber file somewhere and forgotten, thereby wasting 100% of the effort. Or I can get it pretty darn good and set it free. I like the latter chances better.

3. The operative word in the phrase, “enough time” is not time, it’s enough. I have the perfect amount of time today for the things that matter most. There is a ratio and a sliding scale at work here that are never wrong. My actions demonstrate my priorities so I better decide what they are and stick to them.

Paraphrases of some other stuff he says that I liked:

Figure out what you really want; what’s your dream. Realize it will take a lot of work and time to make that dream come true. Don’t run away from stability too early. Don’t get caught by surprise by success.

Misgivings requiring the aforementioned BS detector:

While Jon Acuff does receive input from his blog followers and other writers, speakers and leaders in or near his circle of influence, this book is very much mostly his perspective. Much of his wisdom is true but it is derived mostly from what he has tested and found in his own 35 year life. It does not constitute an empirical study.

It does not account for those who follow Christ closely and are led away from stability with no idea how their needs will be met. If this invitation truly is from God, then credit scores, in-law opinions, job security and nest eggs are not decision factors, they are obstacles to be overcome by faith. Not true for everyone, but there are many stories about people who stepped out in what could only be considered in today’s economy as stupid faith. They did the right thing.

This book does not address the many who have worked hard, been responsible, provided for their families and ended up jobless and foreclosed on. It wasn’t really supposed to but an acknowledgement would have been meaningful.

Like I said. It’s a good book, worth reading. Good stuff to glean. Just don’t cut too deep or pick up anything rotten (gleaning references).

Jon Acuff also has a great/funny/relevant blog at http://www.jonacuff.com/blog/ called “Stuff Christians Like” and a book with the same title I have not read.