Dr. Stanley G. Robertson

Dr. Stan is known as "The Quit Doctor" for a good reason. He's helped people become more successful and have deeper more meaningful relationships by dispensing the fallacy that "quitters never win". Because the truth is, they do win. And some of the most successful people in the world have quit things hundreds of times. But you've got to know when to quit and then quit quickly.

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SHR # 2348 :: When Quitting Makes You A Winner

Show Notes:

[1:28] Dr. Robinson’s story as to how he came to the realization that quitting can sometimes be the better choice.

• We have been coercing people to do things all because of the “don’t quit” motto.

[5:15] Carl recounts people that have “flaked” out and, as a result, became successful.

[6:19] “The idea that winners never quit and quitters never win is a fallacy.”

• Michael Jordan quit baseball and became successful at basketball.
• The Rock quit wrestling and became a successful movie star.

[8:09] Zig Ziggler’s two types of goals.

• Give up goals- are good to share with other people (give up too much t.v, bad food, etc)
• Go up goals- keep them to yourself. These are goals of trying to move up in some way.

[10:23] Writing goals down is the same as if you “owned” that goal.

[11:20] The thing that keeps people from changing is the fear of losing what they already possess.

• People do not want to lose what they already have.

[13:11] The importance of re-evaluating goals.

• One of the reasons for considering quitting is if the goal is a dead end.
• A dead end is a goal that lacks opportunity for you to make progress (i.e. being promoted to a position that has maxed out salary but is still too low).

[16:10] What to do when fear of the unknown keeps you locked in for too long.

• Evaluate your goals, write them down, and plan.
• If you quit one goal, you need to already have another plan in place.
• This will help get you over the emotional hurdles of quitting.

[19:05] It is a bit different in relationships.

• It’s not usually the case where one person is happy and the other is miserable. Usually both partners are somewhat unhappy.
• If you are going to quit a bad relationship:
• 1. You have to give up the effort to a bad relationship.
• 2. You have to also give up the commitment to the relationship.
• It is important to realize and be prepared for the social stigma of quitting.

[24:40] Forcing a kid to “not quit” is interfering with their creativity and keeping them from doing something that they would potentially be good at.

[27:55] We were sucked into the Vietnam war based on the “domino theory”. When things got bad, advisors told the president that the war was a dead end, but the president decided that we could not quit.

• If we got out of the war, all of the lives that were lost prior would be in vain.

[36:10] Dr. Robinson’s four step process for quitting.

• Q- Quit quickly.
• U- Understand negative emotions.
• I- Initiate a new goal.
• T- Transform your behavior.

[45:40] Carl talk about training yourself to “flinch forward”

• Nothing good comes from just stopping and not doing anything.
• Flinching forward means that you are quitting or changing but still moving in another direction.

[49:50] Not quitting really serves social institutes and higher ups in business.

• This has started to change in companies like Amazon.
• They offer a “paid quit” policy at the end of the year for unhappy employees.
• It is cheaper to pay an employee to quit than to keep an unproductive employee for another year.

[57:15] Dr. Robinson’s new book.

• People are saying that it is liberating and changes the way that they think about quitting.
• The goal of the book is to help people feel free to quit whatever is not working for them.
• At the end of life, the things that you will regret are the things that you DIDN’T do to make you happier.
• “Quit: The Last Principle of Success”--- this is the name of the book.

Show Transcript SHR # 2348 :: When Quitting Makes You A Winner