Leadership Thought: How to Quit for All the Right Reasons.

Dear Friend,

You may have heard someone exhort you not to quit something you were doing, or you have heard  the phrase, "Winners never quit and quitters never win." However, it is important to know that there is a time to quit, and leadership expert John Maxwell provides some helpful quitting guidelines.

Maxwell writes you should quit:

1. “Something you don't do well-to start something you do well." 

2. "You should quit something you are not passionate about to do something that fills you with passion." 

3. "You should quit something that doesn't make a difference.”

Aren't you glad that the Apostle Peter quit fishing?

He had been out all-night fishing with nothing to show for his efforts. As a fisherman I know what Peter must have felt. It is hard, and even embarrassing, to pull into the dock with an empty cooler.

Jesus says to Peter, launch out into the deep and put down your nets.

Peter, who was now on shore, could have responded, "Teacher, you may not know it but out here on the sea of Galilee we do all our fishing at night. You stick to teaching and I'll stick to fishing,” but he didn't. 

Peter responds, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets"(Luke 5:4).

Peter's experience doesn't validate what Jesus is asking Him to do, but Peter, out of obedience does what Jesus asks him to do.

And we know the rest of the story. Peter hauls in so many fish that the nets are in danger of breaking. There are so many fish that He has to call another boat for help to land their catch.

If I were Peter, I might have thought that's keep this process going. Let's get some more boats, increase our distribution, and we can make a lot of money.

But that's not what he does. He decides to quit fishing because:

He knows while he can do the fishing thing, but there is something he can do even better.

He knows he is not passionate about what he is doing, and he longs to do something that fills him with passion.

And he knows he is doing something that lacks eternal consequence, and he wants to do something that can change the world.

Peter is not forced to quit his fishing job. He does so voluntarily and on his own because he recognizes that there is something more important than fishing.

Maybe like Peter you are stuck at what you are doing, and you know you could be doing something even better, something that you could do more passionately and something that might have eternal consequences.

Maybe like Peter, you are ready to quit what you are doing for all the right reasons.

Yours in faith and friendship.

Tom