“Give up giving up.”
I came across that statement some time back when a friend posted it. For me, it seemed like a smaller version of a paradox; where if you had looked at it immediately, with no effort to make a deeper analysis you could think the statement was wrong, in some grammatical sense. No, it isn't wrong. The statement highlights the need to say no to giving up. Like, why not give up the attitude of giving up itself?
If there's anything about giving up that one should learn is to give up that attitude of giving up. To put a stop to giving up. Holding our ground and not giving in is an attitude that should be embraced by every success and destiny-oriented person. But yes, it's easier said than done. Not when life is hitting us up and down and everything we try to do to continue moving, to keep on keeping on seems to be extinguished or swallowed up.
Maybe with that, we'll understand why people could end up giving up. However, the route to victory or success doesn't welcome giving up. I see giving up as that point when a person comes to a consensus with their mind and body that they are done with a thing or life. At such, giving up isn't a function of the physical actions but first that of the mind. When a person gives up today, they had it coming, perhaps weeks, months or even years ago.
There are times I do some things, and in the midst of the difficulty or lack of ideas, especially when it relates to my creative works, I tend to lose the flow or encouragement and the suggestion that comes next is that of giving up. Honestly, it's easier to give up than to stand my ground and hold on to continue in those things. And I look at this from the bigger perspective of life as a whole, it only gets harder not to give up. Yet rewarding when we persevere.
On a smaller scale or sense, sometimes, when carrying out a task, the feeling to give up comes up. This was especially when my creativity was challenged by the task I was working on, mostly with regards to designs; graphic design or architectural building design. You know that struggle where you are trying to bring forth something and it isn't coming out coherently, right? That had me several times feeling like giving up on such tasks.
To the bigger picture; life as a whole, there were times it felt like just doing nothing again. It feels like a constant battle for me. We make several efforts towards some gain in life, and these things fail to happen and you're there feeling wasted and confused. That's the moment the thought to just give up sets in. Like, why should I continue when the results aren't forthcoming? But that's where perseverance and an envision of the future sets in.
Life sometimes seems like a baseless endeavour, so the will to give up isn't far from our minds. I also know that when we have a future, a vision we are looking forth to, we can't find it easy to give up amidst the uneasy situations. It wouldn't be about us not just wanting to give up, but rather wanting to achieve the future we envision or dream of. And knowing that we can't achieve anything by giving up, we strive and continue with resilience and perseverance.
Images are mine.