Knowing When to Throw In the Towel
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010We’ve all seen those medical television programs where the patient is brought into the emergency room. They have some sort of trauma and then they have cardiac arrest. The doctors and nurses all go into action. They start the chest compressions and put on the air bag. The inject some medicine into the the patient. Then they get the defibrillator to shock the heart and get it pumping again. Then there is a small heart beat. Giving a glimmer of hope to the doctors. Then just as they are about to relax, the heart stops again. And the process starts all over again. They work on the patient for an hour or more trying to save their life. Then someone says that it’s no use the person is dead. To add to the drama someone else just has to try a little harder. Eventually, they need stop. The person cannot be revived.
Perhaps you’ve watched a boxing match. It been hyped for months. It’s for the championship and a lot is at stake. It gets around the fifth round and one of the fighters is getting beat very badly. Their legs are wobbly, they can hardly stand. Their punches miss their mark. The bell rings and the fighters go their corner. The trainer checks the eyes, see his condition and suggests calling the fight. The fighter say no, they still have some fight left. They go out for another round. They barely make it. The trainer seeing the condition of the fighter and see no hope of winning, and to save the fighter from further injury will make the decision to “Throw in the Towel”. Essentially, ending the fight.
I have a friend who for years was constantly “saving the life” of the company they worked for. With enormous stress, they would move, adjust, plead, beg and borrow to keep things running. They did this for years. It was a constant up hill battle. As it seemed that whenever there was a glimmer of hope that everything would work out, something would happen that set in motion another tailspin. With this stoic attitude they were for years able to dig the company our of the hole. They finally made the decision to “Throw in the Towel”. The stress became too much for them.
Making this kind of decision is extremely difficult to make. The thoughts of the time invested weighs heavily on you. The dedication and investment put into the activity is mulled over in your mind. Thoughts of failure may even enter your thoughts. That is why it is so difficult for some to make the leap. Perhaps there is something in your life that you need to “throw in the towel”. Don’t think of it as quitting. Think of it a way to liberate yourself for the next thing you were created to do.
