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Quits List

Part of my mission to live deliberately involves ruthlessly cutting out anything that saps my time, energy or money to no good end.  I call them my “Quits,” and these are the things I (and my readers) have quit so far:


1.  Feeling Like I Have to Finish Every Bad Movie I Start

2.  Projects I Don’t Actually Care About (With Apologies to David Foster Wallace)

3.  Hitting the Snooze Button

4.  Neglecting to Share the Link Love

5.  Excessive Amounts of TV

6.  Things I Have Absolutely No Need to Know

7.  Compulsive E-Mail Checking

8.  Letting My Inner Penelope Overtake My Inner Cordelia

UPDATE:  Quits Nos. 1-8

9.  To Do Lists

10.  Keeping My Bipolar Disorder a Dirty Little Secret

11.  Gardening

12.  Fighting My Hair

13.  Resenting My Job (And All Other Circumstances I Can’t Change)

14.  Sludge

15.  Treating My Body Like Poo

16.  Being a Girl Friday Superhero Wonderwoman (Or Feeling Like I Have to Be)

UPDATE:  Quits Nos. 9-16

17.  Feeling Embarrassed By My “Guilty” Pleasures

18.  Way Too Freakin’ Many E-Mail Subscriptions

19.  Facebook Faux “Friends”

20.  Not Feeling Fab on a Daily Basis

21.  Constant Caffeination (Unintentionally)

22.  Our Perpetual Garage Sale

23.  Whoring Out My Dream

24.  Trying to “Save” People Who Prefer to Remain Miserable

25.  Caring About What the Other Drivers on the Road Are Doing

26.  Being a Selfish Bitch About My Husband’s Illness

UPDATE:  Quits Nos. 17-26

27.  Dying on the Treadmill

28.  Being a Horrible E-Mail Correspondent

29.  Not Writing My Novel

30.  Letting My Social Anxiety Win

31.  Quit of Quits: The Day Job (!!!)

 

Reader Quits

(Want to submit your own Quit?  Click here!)

Feeling Guilty by Lindsey Morningstar

Second-Guessing the Path I’m Meant to Follow by Brooke Law

(Pity) Partying by Abby Heugel

Twitter by Tatiana Christian

Perfectionism by Amanda Abella

Not Having Faith in Myself by Julia Hristova

Playing Hard To Get With My Ideas by Amber Gilstrap

Imprisoning My Muse (or, Pick up the Pen, Already!) by Erica Hearns

Telling Myself It’s Too Late by Deena Dollars

Justifying Myself by Shanna Mann

Letting the Mirror Determine My Worth by Jessica Rose

Letting People Walk All Over Me by Daisy Flower

Saying Yes to Every Request by Chrysta Bairre

Thinking I’m Too Good For My Job by April Blake

Blog-sessing by Esther Goh

Holding Grudges by Keisha Douglas

Expecting to Disappoint by Rob Farquhar

Letting Outside Forces Own My Life by Kevin Cole

Choosing Attention Over Influence by Shola Richards

Repelling Freedom with My Immaturity by Courtney Johnston

Being Afraid by Dana Sitar

Obsessive Tragedy-Following by T.Z. Wallace

The Comfort of Certainty by Darius Belejevas

Allowing Others to Define My Work by Anne Belov

Holding Myself to Promises I’ve Outgrown by Sarah Greesonbach

Spending Money at Stores that Make Me Feel Fat by LB

Self-Harm by Brittany Marie Carlton

 

Image:  Christie Landrie

  • http://www.insightwriter.com Jeremy Day

    Hi Kelly,

    Great idea! I found you over at Punch Debt in the Face and I am commenting here in hopes that this little site update check box will give me all the updates to your quits list. ;-)

    Cheers,
    Jeremy

    • cordeliacallsitquits

      Hey Jeremy:

      Thanks for stopping by! I like your philosophy as well, and I’ll be adding your blog to my subscriptions. One of the things I’m loving about blogging is how you wind up finding so many other people on inspiring journeys/missions of their own. I look forward reading more of your thoughts!

      ~Kelly

      • http://www.insightwriter.com Jeremy Day

        Yes, blogging is a true joy when you “meet” so many wonderful people. I’m finally going to meet one of my fellow bloggers, Chris Guillebeau, in real life this Friday. It’s such a funny thing to be saying that.

        The real hard thing is to be efficient with your time online. I’d love to personally visit and comments on lots of people’s blogs, but I just can’t do it. I love it all, but you really have to watch your time spent on here, and prioritize where you spend it. But I am glad you are joining my little crusade by subscribing. It is much appreciated! ;-)

        Cheers,
        Jeremy

  • http://lamwagon.wordpress.com Rachel

    Hi Kelly,

    Awesome blog!

    A couple of quit-things I can think of right now at 3:32pm on a cloudy Wed. afternoon in my cube are ***drum rolling***

    1. Running with an air-bubble in your gastro chamber. It’s not worth it, you can always run tomorrow (drink water and eat a banana 1hr prior to your run may help).

    2. 10th attempt to read a book that puts you to sleep, despite its world famous title. Face it, you’re not cut out for it. Try it again in 5 years if you must.

    on being stuck in the clerical role. I loved it. My debute blog post was actually titled “I’m A Corporate Zombie.” Read it if you’re interested. Just to warn you, I’m not a professional writer (actually…English is my 2nd language) so the post won’t read like one. But still, I think I got my point acrossed.

    Cheers,
    Rachel
    http://thelamwagon.wordpress.com

    • cordeliacallsitquits

      Rachel:

      1. I know that feeling, and I can completely agree it’s not worth it.

      2. Ironically enough, one of the next posts in the series is going to be about my giving up on trying to read a critically acclaimed book that I just couldn’t get into. Way to see into the future! :P

      I checked out your debut post, and I love it! I would never have known that English is your second language. I completely understand where you are coming from, and the part that really got to me was where you list what all your coworkers would rather be doing with their lives. Kudos to you for taking your dream of blogging and making it a reality. I wish you all the best!

      ~Kelly

  • http://lamwagon.wordpress.com Rachel

    Ughhh!! The last paragraph got cut off. I meant to say, “I read your post…” and continues on the rest.

    Sorry!

    -Rachel

    • cordeliacallsitquits

      Understood, no worries. :)

  • http://lamwagon.wordpress.com Rachel

    Hi again Kelly,

    Look forward to your new post, and thanks for your kind words!

    P.S. I read your bio. I still feel like a kid too despite my 31 years in this world and have been a mother for the last 13. Strange how that is, but I don’t think I’ll ever come to term with “adulthood,” not until I’m being accused of it.

    Back to work.

    -Rachel

    • cordeliacallsitquits

      “not until I’m being accused of it”–I love it! :D

  • Steven Spangenberg

    Love the quit list! That is a great idea. People (and me) spend too much time on the non-urgent, not important stuff in life!

    • Cordelia

      Agreed! For every one thing I quit, I think up 4 or 5 more that could go. It really is amazing how cluttered our lives can get with the non-urgent.

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  • http://profiles.google.com/erinuncensored erin c…

     Love, love, love your “quit list” so far. I’m a huge fan of lists, and i can’t wait to consider what my I should quit!

    • http://www.cordeliacallsitquits.com Cordelia

      And *I* can’t wait to hear about it! I’m a big list-maker myself, and this is definitely one of the best lists I have ever made. (Far more fun than my To Do lists.) :P

  • http://fancythatfancythis.com/ Ameena

    I’m finally becoming at peace with quitting a book that I don’t like. Finally. I love this list Cordelia!

    • http://www.cordeliacallsitquits.com Cordelia

      Brilliant! Isn’t it funny how hard it can be to let go of something like that? But it can feel so liberating. I’m glad you enjoy it. :)

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  • http://www.cordeliacallsitquits.com Cordelia

    Awesome!  So glad to have you!

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  • Laura Mount

    I L.O.V.E. this !!!! lovelovelove… I want to quit too! :)

    • http://www.cordeliacallsitquits.com Cordelia

      Do it!  (Then tell me about it–I want to know how it goes!)  :)

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  • CMurph

    Loving the quit list!  I just found your blog via Budgets Are Sexy….I commented on your other post about quitting Facebook, and I also just recently quit a volunteer group that was taking over my life.  Hey, I’m all for volunteering, but it wasn’t the right fit.  Every meeting, every email, every phone call I got about this group just facilitated a larger knot in my stomach.  So, I quit!  

    • http://www.cordeliacallsitquits.com Cordelia

       Thank you!  I’m always happy to have a Budgets Are Sexy reader come over–J$ is my homeboy.

      Your volunteer group is the perfect example of a Quit that some people might have trouble with.  Volunteering, in itself, is a great thing.  But for you, the bad outweighed the good.  It wasn’t that volunteering is a bad thing, but that for you, it was a bad fit.

      I don’t know if you have any writerly tendencies about you, but if you’d ever be interested, I’d love to have you do a Reader Quit about this.  So many people quit things that are very obviously “bad”–smoking, gossiping, watching too much TV.  It can be a real struggle to decide to Quit something that has so many “pros” going for it.

      Just a (selfish) suggestion (because I’ve love to have that Quit for a post).  Either way, kudos for you for taking a stand for what makes you happy and realizing that some things just aren’t for you.  Glad to have you on board!

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  • Rob F.

    Thanks for accepting my QUIT onto the list, Cordelia!

    • http://www.cordeliacallsitquits.com Cordelia

      My pleasure. It’s a great one!

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  • http://velocitylocal.com/news Search Marketer

    I love the idea of listing a couple of things to quit to make you a better person. What came into your mind to start doing these? Any motivations?

    • http://www.cordeliacallsitquits.com Cordelia

      Check out my free ebook (upper right-hand corner of this page) for more!

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