Don't Give Up Yet! | Before You Quit by Doug Gehman
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Snapping back to the present, I find myself having again wasted precious time staring at the calendar wondering how I’ll ever finish this project in time. As I squirm and writhe and ultimately succumb to my own self-defeat, I contemplate whether or not to just throw together some scraps and hit submit, or just give up altogether.
Does this sound familiar? It’s certainly not an uncommon scenario.
This is a mentality that I have battled with in some areas of my life for many, many years now. Looking at those in the same profession or creative endeavors as me, and thinking to myself “Oh wow, okay, that's the bar? I’m probably going to just put this away and try something else, then. I clearly wasn’t born with the natural talent that person has.”
It’s actually this mentality that just a couple weeks ago led Cameron to share some thoughts with me which brought me to probably the greatest breakthrough I’ve had in handling this mentality. And these thoughts he shared were then echoed, louder and with more gut-punchiness through a book I recently read, Before You Quit.
As I was searching for a book to read and recommend, I was compelled by this title. Truth be told, I do judge books by their covers, and this cover caught my attention. I skimmed the synopsis, and what little I read convinced me that it would be a good read mid-way through the year that we started with John Acuff’s Finish.
What I was not expecting, however, was such a convicting and challenging book, and one that so closely paralleled the conversation that Cameron and I had had just days earlier.
See, I have this really bad habit of looking at things that I’m doing, comparing them to what others in the same space are doing, and if I’m not on their level or better, I get discouraged pretty quickly and either quit or throw together something less than my best. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I’m someone that can often pick up a book or watch a video on something, and understand the basics of it pretty quickly. But when I start to get “in the weeds” I get frustrated because I’m not as good as the guy on the video. I write this as I stare at my dusty mandolin sitting in its case, my dozens of books on electronics projects, textbooks from failed academic pursuits, the list goes on.
The reality that deep down, I think we all actually know, is that Earl Scruggs didn’t just pick up a banjo one day and start picking a perfect version of Foggy Mountain Breakdown. Lebron James didn’t pick up a basketball and start sinking threes. Steve Jobs didn’t pick up a handful of transistors think of the Macbook Pro. In reality, these guys probably spent thousands, even tens of thousands of hours getting to that point. But it takes more than just hard work. You have to have a reason for this hard work. There has to be some powerful driving force to keep you working hard. Otherwise you’ll never make it past the first 5 hours of practice. Much less the first 10,000.
These are exactly the things that Before You Quit explores. The premise of the book is exactly what the title suggests. Over the course of the book, Gehman guides readers to the same conclusion. If you want to finish something, you have to be willing to put in the work to get there, and more importantly, you must find the proper motivation. Gehman writes:
But one thing is always true about difficulty: it reveals what we really believe and what we really want. Nobody ever ascended Mount Everest who didn’t want to climb to the top. Nobody ran 26.2 miles who didn’t want to finish a marathon. Nobody ever built a successful business who didn’t want prosperity, and no one has ever conquered alcoholism who didn’t want to be sober.
Before You Quit, P. 25-26
While readers of any and all backgrounds can find wisdom in these truths, Gehman goes on to share even deeper importance and value to believers.
God seeks trustworthy people who will think big, pray big, and work for big goals for His glory, knowing that it is God at work in and through them, and that only through Him will things of enduring value ever happen.
Before You Quit, P. 82-83
Throughout the book, Gehman shares many other thoughts on how we persevere and see our goals through, how we evaluate the purpose of those goals, and how we find the courage to pursue them.
I think as believers we always like to keep that little nugget “all for the glory of God” in the back of our minds, but we’re not always great about actually acting on that. Personally, this has been my biggest takeaway. Regardless of how I feel about my own abilities when looking at the product of someone else’s efforts, as long as I remind myself that my singular purpose and passion is and always should be doing everything to the glory of God, I will find all of the motivation and benchmark I need for my own efforts. If I’m truly focusing on doing things to the glory of God, I’m giving my best effort every time.
If you recognize yourself in any of this, I highly recommend you check out this book. Actually, I recommend it either way. It’s a great and really quick read. And whether or not you struggle to see your goals through, I believe all readers will find nuggets of wisdom and motivation.
*Disclaimer: Moody Publishers provided us a copy of this book in exchange for our review. Our review and recommendation is based solely on the content of the book and was not influenced by Moody Publishers or the author.
