Jillian shares the importance of a quit list and how to create your own.
What Is A Quit List?
Jillian shared that she is not a great quitter. Instead, she is good at moving rocks uphill and keeping her head down until the work is done. However, it is important to quit things if they are no longer serving you.
If you don’t want this year and this decade to feel mediocre, you’re going to have to figure out how to muster up the courage to quit some stuff. Cause let’s be real, our lives are probably full.
As you look at your budget and your calendar, you are likely not thinking that you have unlimited time and resources to spend. In fact, the opposite is probably true.
The reality is if we’re going to double down on the stuff that’s really important to us. If we’re going to focus in and really try to lean in and make some progress, we’re probably going to have to give some stuff up.
Things on your quit list might include expenses, projects, relationships, ideas, beliefs, or habits. If something isn’t moving you forward towards your ideal life, then it needs to move to the quit list.
Three Categories Of Your Quit List
Not everything that you should quit will fall into the same category. It’s important to be clear about where items fall on your quit list so that you can follow through.
Just Stop
If something is not serving you and has never served you, then you should stop it completely.
Take A Pause
Although something may give you value and is important to you, it doesn’t mean that it is serving you now.
For example, you may want to continue the expense of going out to lunch with your friends because it brings you joy. However, if you are in a season of life that is focusing on paying down debt, then you may need to take a pause. It is okay to hit pause and take a break while you make progress on your other goals.
Not Yet
You may know that you want this item to be a part of your life, but you might not have space in your life right now. For example, when Jillian adopted her three children, her home grew from one kid to five kids in two years. During that time, there were many things in her life that she had to pause for that season of life.
Other things that might have to wait are large purchases.
Timing can be so important in our financial life. As we make purchases and decisions, you can make the exact same decision and it be a horrible idea at 22 and a really good idea at maybe 55
For Jillian, this major delayed purchase was a new car. Even though one of her coworkers took extreme issue with Jillian’s beat up Honda Civic sitting in the parking lot, Jillian saw that this car was taking her closer to her ideal life. Two years later, her family hit FI and she was able to pursue bigger and crazier dreams.
Making those hard choices to say not yet really helped us land our ideal life of traveling, and hiking, and being home on Saturday’s, and being home after her kids got home from school. Because at the end of the day, it’s not other people’s job to understand our dreams and to understand our goals.
While pushing pause might feel difficult, just remember you can always say yes later on in life.
As you plan out your new decade, what could you do to create some space in your life? Take a look at your budget, calendar, and emotional bandwidth to determine what things need to make it to your quit list. Once you free up more time and energy, you’ll have the ability to double down on the things that matter to you in 2020.
Find Your Courage
If you have been enjoying these episodes and want to dig deeper, then check out our Everyday Courage workbook. The free workbook can help you to take these ideas and turn them into action. Let’s create your best year ever!
Related Episodes:
- Get Unstuck From A Mediocre Life
- Find Three Compelling Goals for the Decade
- Welcome To My Hot Mess (Joy) Club #2
In this episode, Jillian recommends Tiller. Tiller puts your financial life on a spreadsheet that automatically updates with your daily spending, transactions, and account balances each day. Try it free for 30 days to see if this is the tool that can really help empower you with your money this year.
