LONDON (Parliament Politics Magazine) – Suppose you have been working on a project for months, but have not made any progress. The chance of a successful result seems almost non-existent, but your employer has already invested a lot of time, money and energy in it. Is continuing then the best idea? The chance that you ‘may’ give up is very small. Is giving up still seen as failure?
We persist in many areas when we would be better off giving up because we have already invested (too) much time, energy, money and dedication. Just think of love, a study or a career. But wanting to maintain such a ‘project’ at all costs can really only lead to negative things.
Failure
In 2018, British scientists studied the perfectionism of young people. The expectations of parents play an important role in this. They push their children more and more to achieve good results in school. Moreover, the current meritocracy creates extra pressure.
In a meritocracy, we are personally responsible for the success or failure in our lives. In other words, if you don’t succeed, you are a failure. But that’s not right. Why make yourself unhappy to reach a certain standard?
Choose an achievable target
Canadian psychologist Carsten Wrosch calls this choice ‘goal disengagement’ . That is, one stops making efforts and devotion to a goal that is too high. That is an important step in pursuing spiritual well-being and a successful life. It is important that you have a new goal and let go of the unattainable goal. This way you reduce the chance of emptiness and loneliness.
Giving up does not mean that you are lazy or do not have perseverance. On the contrary, you can opt for an attainable and perhaps better goal.
Ambitious at the right time
Fortunately, more and more attention is being paid to student well-being and mental health among young people so that they consciously learn to let go of unattainable goals. This is undoubtedly a positive trend.
While it was the norm for previous generations to persevere, young people know better when to give up in order to become ambitious in another area. That can save a society a lot of unnecessary project costs in the future
