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There's that old adage: "winners never quit and quitters never win." Here's the thing, though: sometimes, it's okay to quit. Sometimes, in fact, it's the right decision.
I was going through a lot of old e-mail trying to reduce my gmail load (I'm using 70% capacity! How did that happen?). I figured the quickest way to free up some space was to delete old attachment-laden messages, and so I ended up rediscovering a lot of old Living Kingdoms of Kalamar e-mails that are of no use to anyone any more. I had some really good times volunteering on that campaign, and later, running the campaign staff. But eventually, my passion for it was gone. The hours I was putting into the campaign were no longer a labor of love, they were a labor of duty, and I did them in a disgruntled fashion.
The time came when I needed to quit. It was the only way I could preserve my love for the campaign and the game -- and my sanity. And once my passion was gone, well, it was probably best for the campaign that I not be running it. (I mean, look what happened to Batman when someone who hated the character got a hold of it -- it became a campy, cheesy comic that inspired the Adam West TV series, rather than the dark, serious comic it had been, and has become again.)
This is also true of reading books. There are far, far too many books I want to read to force myself to finish a book I'm not enjoying. I recently started a novel (okay, I've recently started five novels; I'm doing one of those read-several-at-once stints again) that grabbed me in the first two pages and I was sure I was going to love it. But by about thirty pages in, it was starting to lose me. (Actually, the instant that I realized it was set on a post-apocalyptic, futuristic earth instead of a fantasy world was where it started going downhill. I like p-a books as much as the next person, but I like them better when I know that's what I'm opening.) At sixty-odd pages in, I made the decision: too much else to read. This one can go back to the library.
Sometimes, quitting really is the best option!
I was going through a lot of old e-mail trying to reduce my gmail load (I'm using 70% capacity! How did that happen?). I figured the quickest way to free up some space was to delete old attachment-laden messages, and so I ended up rediscovering a lot of old Living Kingdoms of Kalamar e-mails that are of no use to anyone any more. I had some really good times volunteering on that campaign, and later, running the campaign staff. But eventually, my passion for it was gone. The hours I was putting into the campaign were no longer a labor of love, they were a labor of duty, and I did them in a disgruntled fashion.
The time came when I needed to quit. It was the only way I could preserve my love for the campaign and the game -- and my sanity. And once my passion was gone, well, it was probably best for the campaign that I not be running it. (I mean, look what happened to Batman when someone who hated the character got a hold of it -- it became a campy, cheesy comic that inspired the Adam West TV series, rather than the dark, serious comic it had been, and has become again.)
This is also true of reading books. There are far, far too many books I want to read to force myself to finish a book I'm not enjoying. I recently started a novel (okay, I've recently started five novels; I'm doing one of those read-several-at-once stints again) that grabbed me in the first two pages and I was sure I was going to love it. But by about thirty pages in, it was starting to lose me. (Actually, the instant that I realized it was set on a post-apocalyptic, futuristic earth instead of a fantasy world was where it started going downhill. I like p-a books as much as the next person, but I like them better when I know that's what I'm opening.) At sixty-odd pages in, I made the decision: too much else to read. This one can go back to the library.
Sometimes, quitting really is the best option!
