Calling it Quits

On Saturday our DM, Martin, called an end to his D&D game after 8 sessions, citing too much prep time and it feeling like “work.” That’s certainly understandable and I’ve been there myself, although I’d likely never run D&D again, save for my earlier idea.

Qutting has such a negative connotation, but it’s also the genesis for some good. Consider the following…

Last year I “quit” Windows-based PCs at home, even though I oversee an entire region of said equipment. It’s such a nice feeling to simply have a machine at home “that works,” with no errors, no memory leaks, and is a paragon of simplicity. And I had been taught that Macs were evil! It takes a paradigm shift to approach something from an entirley new viewpoint and consider that you might have been wrong. Plus, I’m more productive than ever.

Four years ago, after the death of my father, my mother quit smoking the next day. That was something like a 30 year long habit, gone in an instant. I don’t presume that was an easy change and the impetus for the change certainly wasn’t something that I’d wish on anyone, but the end result is, without a doubt, positive.

Last week, as part of reflection exercise, I elected to make a few changes in my life as well. Among them, quitting caffeine. After doing some research, caffeine does some pretty scary things to you. Oh sure, it won’t give you cancer, but it does restrict the blood flow to your brain and cause an increase in blood pressure. I’m not as spry as I once was and my brain can use all the blood it can get! Now, you can’t just quit caffeine cold-turkey, you’ve got to wean yourself off of it. I’m down to one can of soda a day now and starting Wednesday (a week into it) I’ll go off completely. The near-debilitating headaches that last 3-6 days should be loads of fun.

So, the next time you hear about someone quitting, consider that to move forward you sometimes have to recognize when it’s time to stop.