Why do people quit?

More than 20 years ago I started to wonder: “Why do people quit gyms?”

Not a small fraction, but more than half of those who join gyms quit right after 6 - 8 weeks, and the rest exercise irregularly. More than 90% of these people have still answered that the exercise was important to them.

“Because of my work schedule.”

 “Because of my family life.”

 “Because of my children.”

 “I am too busy.”

 “I am too young.”

“I am too old.”

“I don’t have the time.”

And there were some other answers.

Why is there the contradiction - “Exercise is important to me but I still quit it?”

Later, as I learned more and more about us, as humans, I discovered that most of the answers that I’ve heard from people were not their real reasons for quitting. The actual problem lay much deeper, and those real reasons were hidden inside of people’s minds. In order to discover them, we need to understand who we are and how we think. Reading more and more about human psychology made me realize that majority of people quit for the same reasons, and these reasons have nothing to do with everyday’s life. 

In general, when people pursue their goals, very often they quit because they get influenced by various things. These things corrupt people’s minds, allowing them to procrastinate or look for excuses. Once they've failed, they start looking for easier and easier solutions or fall for quick-fix, short-term programs. These programs are usually based on producing only results and not on developing people’s willpower or self-discipline, individually, to continue. Consequently, at the end of every quick fix, people go back to their previous state of thinking and rely on success only with influence from the outer source and not from within themselves.