The Joy of Quitting

Product Information

G, my penultimate child, is a 14-year-old freshman. He’s a talented trumpet player. He’s the first chair in the freshman band and his band director wants him to play in every band the high school has. G tried the optional jazz band that meets before school. This required him to get up early. After a few weeks, he asked me if he could quit. The jazz band has a different director than the freshman band, and the jazz band leader is a shouter. G said he doesn’t want to wake up early to get yelled at. Fair enough. He shifted, his hands on his knees, and said, “I don’t know why I want to share this, but something I was just thinking about and talking with God about is faith. And if we put faith in anything outside of God, It’s sin.” But I’m twenty-four years old, and one of my biggest fears is becoming that thirty-year-old man living in his parent’s basement, playing video games and chugging Mountain Dew—which is funny because I am neither a man nor do I enjoy Mountain Dew, so as far as fears go, that ones pretty unrealistic. Regardless, I’ve been praying for a job for a while. I love that my parents support me, but I don’t want them to have to help me forever. My advice to anyone who wants to give up, is that you have to WANT to give up. There is little point in putting yourself through it if you don’t really want to. I loved a cigarette and I miss them when I think about them (which isn’t often nowadays, thankfully), but now that I am on the other side of it, I can’t believe the damage I was intentionally doing to myself for something that is not a necessity, very unhealthy, very expensive, very smelly (especially your breath and fingers) and is ultimately a drag on your subconscious.

There is no discernible narrative arc, partly because of how life tends to unfurl in most households anyway, and partly because this is a collection curated from earlier ones: Powdered Milk (2012), Miseryland (2015), Sunburning (2017), Chlorine Gardens (2018), and Rat Time (2019). And so, what we get are snatches of conversation, mind-numbing chores that can’t be avoided, and a bit of happiness bubbling to the surface now and again.Oddly, in our society we look on quitting as a bad thing—a sign of laziness or a weak nature. But to me, quitting is an act of integrity and self-respect. Quitting sets boundaries. It says, “Enough is enough. This isn’t working. I’m done.” Divine intelligence is constantly inviting you to let go and trust, to be bold enough to jettison what isn’t working and clear away the deadwood that no longer serves you. Always, you’re invited to be spiritually defiant, to lower your umbrella of resistance and excuses, and do what’s right according to the dictates of your soul. I repeat: your soul. Not what your parents want, or your spouse, your kids, your preachers, teachers, friends, society, or the media, but you. This is your life, your journey. Consider others’ feelings, by all means; honor their path, too; but don’t let it dictate your own. Quit resisting your greater good. Why suffer more than you have to? Where’s the nobility in struggling for a cause that’s not worth fighting for? Dare to trust the bigger plan. Open your heart wider. Allow grace to flow through you and out into service. You were not put here to be cowed by circumstance. Choose the path of harmony and integrity and walk forward with your head held high. He calls us to do hard things, yes. Sometimes, we do have to work in a terrible job. Sometimes, we must hold our nose and take the plunge. But a good distinction to make is to ask yourself this question.

Anyone who’s squinted doubtfully at a parenting manual will relish The Joy of Quitting by Keiler Roberts, which skewers family life with merciless and very funny directness."— Guardian Best Graphic Novels of 2022 The best thing to do if you want to avoid developing a salary addiction is to quit before you’re ahead – before you’re so far up the career ladder that earning less money seems unthinkable. This was very easy for me to do with law because I was really quite bad at it. Also, I was working on a case about ice-cream that had been going on for 19 years and I’d started having nightmares about ice-cream.Only you know what that is. Only you have access to your inner GPS. You were gifted with your own mandate when you came here, a singular mission to fulfill in this lifetime. You don’t do that by tuning out the voice of intuitive guidance. I knew intellectually that I spent too much time on social media but couldn’t seem to moderate my use. La sonrisa congelada. Es inevitable que aparezca con cada nuevo episodio de la vida de Keiler Roberts, narrado con su trazo desgarbado (pero cada vez más cuidado), donde nos cuenta anécdotas del día a día en su hogar, conviviendo con su familia y su enfermedad. De hecho, en esta El placer de la renuncia, Roberts se retrotrae al origen de dos de los pilares de su obra autobiográfica: el diagnóstico de su esclerosis múltiple y el nacimiento de su (siempre hilarante sin esfuerzo alguno) hija Xia. If it’s not practical to quit right away for whatever reason, make a plan to quit. Set a date. Take steps. Prepare the way, making eventual freedom your aim. Each time I pray for a job, miraculously, the Lord provides something. This has been a common theme in my life since I was young. And, just like always, this past month, I started praying for a job, and The Lord provided.