When my friend read about the joy of not going, she wrote “I also practice leaving. I have paid good money for plays and movies and then, halfway through, I’m tired or bored. I tell myself that since I have paid the money, I deserve to do whatever would give me the most pleasure, including going home.”
Absolutely YES!
So many people think in the opposite way: having paid $100 for a seat, they “must” sit in it until the long-awaited end finally arrives. Similarly, having started what turns out to be a boring book, virtue and their Sunday School teacher demand that they continue torturing themselves until they have “read” the whole book.
Somebody said that life is too short to eat cheap ice cream. I say that life is too rich to spend time on inferior work or projects or coffee. True, if you stick with the program or the piano, you will improve. True, it is always a gamble to turn the page or sit through the next segment. The story may get better. You may be glad you persisted. But if you are pretty sure the item looks like something not so hot that is cooling even more, I say “Exit”.
There is such also a thing as a hot taste. The first comment by a speaker may set off such bells and shouts in your brain that the only thing to do is get off by yourself to think about the comment and its meaning for you. Notes, talks with friends, Google searches may be urgently required. It would be a serious loss to let this new insight or inspiration get lost in normal activities and be forgotten.
Research and exploration have costs. You tried a new color but it simply doesn’t work. You gave the book a chance but you are ready to leave it. Chalk up the expense to your daring, your flexibility, your willingness to give things a try. You did and now you know, Bye, bye.
