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You’ve likely experienced the optimistic reset: a fresh note, a new week, and a well-crafted routine. It includes things like reading, prayer, or exercise. Then life happens. A late night. A tough conversation. A sick day. A looming deadline. One miss becomes two, and suddenly the whole “system” feels like a verdict: “I’m inconsistent.”

A “Rule of Life” is designed to protect you from this cycle of success and failure.

Think of it less as “rules” and more as a trellis: a simple framework of practices and boundaries that supports what you most want to grow. It’s not an ideal schedule for an ideal self. It’s a pattern sturdy enough for your real life—especially the messy weeks. [...]

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Today’s essay is about something most of us rarely talk about.

Quitting.

From the time we’re young, we’re taught to admire perseverance.

• “Finish what you start.”
• “Never give up.”
• “Stay the course.”
• “Push through.”

And often, that advice is wise.

But not always.

Sometimes the bravest, clearest, most honest act is not to continue—but to quit. Not from laziness. Not from fear. But from truth. From discernment. From a deeper loyalty to what matters more than pride or the story we once told about ourselves.

Ancient philosophy and spiritual traditions understood something modern culture often forgets: Quitting is not always failure. Sometimes, it is loyalty to a higher calling.

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Many of us treat our inner life like a home renovation project.

If I could just fix my overthinking, my consistency issues, my need for approval, and my procrastination, I could finally become “the person I’m supposed to be.” Yet often, the more we try to fix ourselves, the more tense and self-doubting we become—it’s like we are managing a difficult employee in our heads.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth: much of self-improvement is just self-rejection in nicer clothes. Stay with me...

Carl Rogers—one of the most respected psychologists of the 20th century—offers a different perspective: real change doesn’t come from forcing yourself into a new personality. It comes from accepting what’s true, without flinching.

This is not a call for complacency.

It’s a call for a more realistic kind of transformation—one based on honesty rather than self-conflict.

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