Do you often find yourself trying new things and failing? Have you ever found yourself going back to something you used to struggle with and suddenly finding yourself better than ever?
This is a common story I hear from people.
People often have certain interests or ways of doing things that they expect to work out for them, but when it doesn’t they are quick to quit. Then when they come back to it at a different point in their life, they are more successful or find themselves with a renewed interest.
Why?
The answer usually lies in the approach.
When someone quits a task for a long period of time and comes back to it later, they are now a different person. Their habits are gone, they have new perspectives, and they are seeing the task with fresh eyes. This allows them to approach the interest in a new way, and in many cases that new way is more successful.
An example might be someone that struggled in college with studying and grades. They quit college to pursue work interests. Then, several years later, they wonder if they should go back. When they do, the find that they are studying better and understanding the topics more than ever before. This is because they have a new mental approach to studying, as well as new ways to process information.
Another example might be a person that had an idea for a product but couldn’t figure out how to make it work. Time went on and they gave it up. When they came back to it later, they found themselves with a new idea for fixing the problems they had in the past.
There are two commonalities among stories like this. One is that time can help someone see something they are interested in from a completely new perspective, so the things you quit years ago are still worth looking back on someday.
But another thing we can learn is that failure is rarely about you. It is usually about something that can be changed, like your approach or your way of looking at the problem. Sometimes it may simply be that you’re not correctly judging success.
Whatever it may be, if you find yourself struggling with a particular task, don’t quit. See if you can first address it using a different approach. You may find that fresh eyes are all you need.
