I don't think there's anybody that hasn't had to quit something at one point or the other in their life. It might be quitting something good or bad and when it comes to quitting something good, there are a lot of motivational quotes out there that portray quitting as something bad. You will hear things like "never give up" or "things will get better" but sometimes you will discover something better when you quit.
The main reason why I believe it's good to quit sometimes is because of something that happened a few years ago. It was in 2020 and we were in the middle of the COVID-19 lockdown. After being cooped up in the house for months just playing video games, watching movies, and roaming around social media, I finally decided to learn a digital skill and that was how I picked up graphic design.
It was something I picked up without thinking much about it or having a defined plan but after a while, I started making money from it by taking up design jobs for friends and acquaintances. I got better at it and my customer base kept increasing as people kept referring their friends (I suspect it was because my services were very cheap). But later on, I realized something; I never really enjoyed graphics designing.
Was I good at it? Yes, but I didn't really enjoy it. It was one of those jobs you don't like doing but you just have to do it because it pays. It was fun at first but it quickly turned into a chore later on, I kept telling myself that it will get better and that I will get used to it after a while but it never did. After several months of graphics designing, I finally called it quits.
Even after I quit, I was still receiving calls and messages from people who were looking for a logo, e-flyers, and business cards but I always tell them that I don't do graphic design anymore. I could have just kept accepting gigs and kept making money, right? Not really, sometimes it's not really about the money but also about the satisfaction that comes with the job and I wasn't really getting it from graphics design.
After several months of quitting graphics design, I stumbled on programming and I said "why not give it a try?", And I did. I totally love programming and I feel right at home when I'm solving problems with codes. I guess the reason why I didn't really excel at graphics design was that I'm not really an imaginative person (which is very important in that field). I'm more of a logical person and that's more suited to the programming world.
In programming (specifically website development), I don't have to design from scratch and rely on my imagination, but rather I just have to build what someone else has designed and rely on my logical abilities. I enjoy it far more than graphic design, even though I am not yet a professional. Now, if I am to go with all the motivational quotes about not quitting something good, will I have discovered my love for programming?
Quitting doesn't have to mean totally giving up but rather, it can mean closing one chapter of our life in order to explore another. Sometimes you won't see what you're looking for until you have left one path and followed another, which is something I discovered when I ditched graphics design and went over to programming.
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