Lysa's Quitter Voice

Guest blog excerpt taken from Lysa TerKeurst- author of Made to Crave

Thanking my quitter voice

This morning at my boot camp class, something occurred to me in the middle of an exercise I don’t like. Actually, I loathe this exercise with every fiber in my body.

I don’t know what the official title of this exercise is but it involves two really heavy ropes tied to the wall. So we’ll call it the rope fling thing.

You take the ropes, one in each hand, and fling them high above your head while doing squats over and over. It causes the heavy ropes to look like waves in the ocean. But they aren’t waves in the ocean and this is no tranquil setting.

It’s torture. Just plain and simple.

And while part of my brain says, “This is so good for you — give it all you’ve got,” a much bigger part of my brain is screaming something else entirely: “STOP!”

When I don’t stop, the quitter part of my brain starts this dialogue, “Okay, if you’re not going to quit, just give a lot less effort. You can still appear to be working really hard while decreasing your effort significantly. Don’t raise your hands so high. Don’t squat so low. Just do little flings that barely make the rope move. I mean seriously, you are tired. Really tired. You’ve given all you’ve got. And at any point if you want to stop, there’s no law that says you can’t. Who cares?”

Have you ever heard the quitter dialogue?

That little voice helps you make excuses in any area which is hard to persevere.

But here’s the thing. The quitter voice doesn’t have to keep you from a win. The quitter voice can push you toward a win.

How?

Remember, you only hear the quitter voice when you’re really close to a breakthrough.

I don’t hear the quitter voice when I’m laying on the couch.

I don’t hear the quitter voice when I’m sitting at my desk.

I don’t hear the quitter voice when I’m talking on the phone.

I hear it when I’m about to make serious progress in a workout… but my body is tired.

I hear it when I’m about to eat something healthy… but my kids make chocolate chip cookies.

I hear it when I pick up my bottle of water… but there’s a soda in the fridge.

If you’ve ever tried to persevere in anything, I bet you’ve heard the quitter voice too. So when you hear it, turn it on its head by thanking it!

Thank that quitter voice for reminding you how close you are to making serious progress.

Then push through until you breakthrough!

Fling that rope.

Eat that grilled chicken salad.

Drink that water.

And squash that stinkin’ quitter into the ground.