August 18 is Never Give Up Day—a global day dedicated to celebrating resilience, perseverance, and unity. These are important qualities but knowing when to walk away or change direction can be the key to greater happiness and life satisfaction.

Welcome to the 126^th edition of The Sunday Spark, a series with weekly thoughts and highlights, nuggets of learning, and a simple living challenge for the week. Along with thoughts on knowing when to walk away, this week’s edition looks at records made from water bottles, a word of the week, and tips for washing your jeans.  

On my mind this week: Knowing when to walk away

Never Give Up Day is about cultivating a mindset of determination and perseverance to help get through all of life’s ups and downs. But that “never give up” mentality can be harmful and counter productive. Our world often sees giving up as a sign of failure. I believe it takes greater strength and self-awareness to cut our losses and move on to other things.

Perseverance and resilience are admirable qualities, and there are definitely things in life that are worth digging in and fighting for—things like health, family, justice, and fairness. Everything else is negotiable.

If you’re on a western road trip from Toronto to Vancouver and you realize you’re headed east toward Montreal, you would stop and turn around, right? The same applies with anything in life. If the task you’re working on truly matters to you and aligns with your values, it makes sense to keep going. On the other hand, sometimes it’s better to stop, reassess, and move on to something else.

Sticking with a task that’s going nowhere out of stubbornness, because you’re afraid to admit defeat, or concerned about how walking away will be perceived by others, can be harmful to your mental health. It can also have a negative impact on those around you. 

My biggest pivot

One of the biggest pivots I made in my life was stepping out of people leadership into an individual contributor role. In many ways staying the course would have been the path of least resistance. I wouldn’t have had to deal with the rumours and speculation from co-workers about “the real reason” I made the change.

It was a difficult decision to make, but deep down inside I knew the headaches that went with people leadership no longer outweighed the positives for me. I was happy to lead informally as a coach or mentor and continued to do so for the rest of my career. But the status, the title, and the longer-term earnings potential weren’t really that important to me. I didn’t have that level of wisdom and self-awareness when I chose the people leadership path in my 20s

Looking back, changing direction was the best thing I could have done for my overall wellbeing. It allowed me to redefine success on my terms and it reenergized my career.

Knowing when to walk away…and when to dig in

Knowing if and when to change direction starts with a solid understanding of your core values. That takes reflection.

In her book The Top Five Regrets of the Dying, Bronnie Ware reported the number one regret was, “I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.”

If there’s a task or goal you’re struggling with, put external opinions aside and ask yourself why it matters to you. If you can’t remember why you’re doing something, or you’re following a path because it’s what others expect of you, it may be time to reshuffle your priorities to focus on things that do matter…to you. 

Because life is short and knowing when to walk away can make all the difference.

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Three highlights of the week

It’s important to celebrate big milestones and simple pleasures in life. Keeping the trend going, here are three highlights and simple pleasures of the week gone by:

• On our walk one evening, we saw five raccoons walking along the rocks to get from one side of the pond to the other. It was quite funny seeing them walk gingerly across the rocks to avoid falling in. The pond isn’t that big. It might have been easier to just walk around.
• After a month of extremely dry, hot weather, we finally had some much needed rain.
• I enjoyed my first toasted tomato sandwich made from tomatoes from my garden. Yummy!

Things I learned this week

Life is all about learning. Here are three things I learned this week:

Records made from water bottles

I’ve written before about how Coldplay has been leading the way with sustainable concerts. The band recently announced they will be rereleasing their entire discography on records made from recycled plastic water bottles.

Each LP will contain nine recycled water bottles and will reduce carbon emissions by 85% compared to traditional vinyl albums.

(Source: EuroNews)

Word of the week

Again this week, Wordle had a word I’d seen before but had no idea what it meant. This week’s mystery word was knell, defined by dictionary.com as “the sound made by a bell rung slowly, especially for a death or a funeral.”

Tips for washing your jeans

Do you turn your jeans inside out before washing them. I learned this week that it’s good for them because it prevents the colour from fading—especially in the case of black or dark wash jeans. We’re also supposed to do up all buttons and zippers before washing. And experts suggest using a mild detergent and avoiding fabric softener.

(Source: Huffington Post)

This week’s simple living challenge – Shop your closet

Simplifying life is a big part of living more intentionally. With that in mind, I kicked off the year with 52 ways to simplify your life this year, including a downloadable checklist of weekly tasks.

This week’s challenge is to shop your closet before buying new clothing. Fast fashion has a huge impact on the planet, and most of us own far too many clothes. No matter the occasion, you likely already own something that suits.

I’d love to hear what you think about any of this week’s topics. Drop me a comment below and let me know your thoughts and ideas.