The joy of quitting lies in the freedom to experiment, evolve, and adapt. It’s about recognizing that life is a series of experiences, each teaching us valuable lessons. Quitting doesn’t mean giving up; it means prioritizing your well-being and happiness. It means giving the chance for other things to open up. He calls us to do hard things, yes. Sometimes, we do have to work in a terrible job. Sometimes, we must hold our nose and take the plunge. But a good distinction to make is to ask yourself this question. If you can’t physically walk away (for whatever reason) you can mentally walk away and quietly quit. You can decide to no longer engage in the toxicity and leave them to it. The long term benefits. Only you know what that is. Only you have access to your inner GPS. You were gifted with your own mandate when you came here, a singular mission to fulfill in this lifetime. You don’t do that by tuning out the voice of intuitive guidance. There is a friend or member of family that you just don’t see eye to eye with. You’ve tried various ways to communicate, and you keep reaching a stalemate, but they seem to be intent on arguing their way through it. You have a choice – you can keep the toxic communication going or you can quietly quit. Walk away from unwanted drama.

If it’s not practical to quit right away for whatever reason, make a plan to quit. Set a date. Take steps. Prepare the way, making eventual freedom your aim. Anyone who’s squinted doubtfully at a parenting manual will relish The Joy of Quitting by Keiler Roberts, which skewers family life with merciless and very funny directness."— Guardian Best Graphic Novels of 2022 A diary in comics form, Roberts’s book collects snippets from eight years of her daily life, capturing exasperating and hysterical moments of mothering, friendship and more."— New York Times The most common smoking-related causesof death for smokers are heart disease, COPD, stroke, and cancer.Quit resisting your greater good. Why suffer more than you have to? Where’s the nobility in struggling for a cause that’s not worth fighting for? Dare to trust the bigger plan. Open your heart wider. Allow grace to flow through you and out into service. You were not put here to be cowed by circumstance. Choose the path of harmony and integrity and walk forward with your head held high. Once you have grasped the concept, you’ll find yourself applying it to different areas of your life. It won’t always be dramatic, sometimes it will just be as simple as saying to yourself “I don’t need this, I think I’ll just quietly walk away.” It feels GREAT. You don’t always need to win! From toddler antics to doctor appointments, Keiler Roberts breathes humour and life into the fleeting present For every person who dies a smoking-related death, 30 or more peopleare living with a smoking-related disease. Now when I first read about this my instant reaction was ‘well, how do things get resolved then?’ But it’s all about choice. Quiet quitting is about what battles you need to fight, what conversations are useful, which of those won’t make any difference and when is the time to recognise by being quiet and walking away it’s far more helpful to both parties. So, how does this version of quiet quitting play out?

However, I would never have been able to keep going with Weirdo Poetry if I hadn’t quit a bunch of other things along the way. I’ve quit two other newsletters, writing non-fiction books and articles about freelancing, Medium, and freelance copywriting twice. He loved to tell us that the only people who ever accomplished anything were the ones who persevered. And he was right, sort of. But, I’ve been working hard to correct my generational trauma. Her daughter Xia always figures in here as the comic (funny, I mean) hero as in all the books, that Art Linklater, Kids Say the Darndest Things (I know this ages me as it was a popular book in the sixties or seventies) angle, but in this book many more people from her family and friends seem to figure in the joking around. And dogs, always dogs. Bigger book, more family members and friends, the classes she teaches. An expanded horizon. And it is funny, for sure.Oh, that can’t be God!” I thought to myself as I rolled up my sleeves and started scouring the internet for jobs. “Because I asked for a job—and this isn’t enough money.”

There are also things that I haven’t quit. I’ve kept at Weirdo Poetry, which started with the publication of my Pirate Haiku book in 2016 that almost nobody read. There were years when I had less than twenty people who cared anything about what I was creating. But I’m twenty-four years old, and one of my biggest fears is becoming that thirty-year-old man living in his parent’s basement, playing video games and chugging Mountain Dew—which is funny because I am neither a man nor do I enjoy Mountain Dew, so as far as fears go, that ones pretty unrealistic. Regardless, I’ve been praying for a job for a while. I love that my parents support me, but I don’t want them to have to help me forever. Of course, we admire people who persevere. Who doesn’t love the story of Thomas Edison and how he ran hundreds of experiments in his quest to perfect the lightbulb filament? The guy simply wouldn’t quit. Why? Because he knew that inventing was part of his soul’s journey. His passion, his commitment, his calling. If it hadn’t been, things would not have worked out for him.

The Joy of Quitting

Her work gives off a kind of radical stillness. It always lowers my blood pressure... Keiler Roberts is my new hero.”—Christopher Borrelli, The Chicago Tribune I’m compelled to work on this stuff. It’s what drives me. I would, and have for years, do it for free and to an audience as small as my closest friends and family. However, because I have persevered, grown my skills, and attracted more readers, doing the work is sweeter now than ever. I feel your energy every time I sit down to write or draw. Hearing from you about how my work makes you feel, fuels me to get better and make more stuff. Ultimately, Roberts’ work questions the nature of meaning, and what we hold or should hold dear as we go about the business of living. It reminds one of Arthur Miller’s play, Death of a Salesman, where Linda, wife of protagonist Willy Loman, defends him by pointing out that he wasn’t a great man, a rich man, someone in the paper, or the finest character that ever lived. “But he’s a human being,” she says, “so attention must be paid.” I felt like there wasn’t enough time in the day, but would be ashamed to share my screen time data with a friend.

I had a 20-year career on radio and TV, working for the BBC, CNN, and NPR. At one point, I had my own show on the Travel Channel. But it was the wrong path for me. Appearing on camera made me anxious. Traveling for weeks at a time without adequate sleep or nutrition stressed me out. Constantly, my inner guide told me this wasn’t for me, yet I ignored it. For two decades, I was one of those people who pursued, as Carolyn Myss puts it, “a dream that does not belong to them.” Eventually, it put me in the hospital. I’m a big proponent of quitting; I do it regularly. I began my quitting career in law, which I sort of found myself in by mistake to begin with. After studying English literature – which is an excellent grounding for a life of perennial disillusionment – I got a job at a corporate law firm because that seemed to be what a lot of people did. They funded a law conversion course and this was followed by a well-paid two-year training contract. It seemed like a no-brainer.There are one billion smokers around the world today. Eighty percent of them live in low and middle income countries. Multiple people told me to quit. I remember distinctly, Monday night, as I was falling asleep and praying to God, I asked Him what I should do.