Should you quit your art? project? social media?

Is The Juice Worth The Squeeze? How To Know When To Quit And When To Keep Going

I have asked myself this question more times than I can count.

Should I quit? Should I stop? Is all of this effort actually worth it?

And what I’ve learned over the years, from shutting down a physical studio, from building United ArtSpace for years without earning a penny from it, from nearly walking away from things that turned out to be the best decisions I ever made, is that quitting is rarely as simple as yes or no.

So here’s how I actually think about it.

First, Ask Why You Want To Quit

The reason matters enormously. Because the answer to “Should I quit?” depends almost entirely on what’s driving the question in the first place.

Sometimes it’s money. The thing isn’t paying enough, or isn’t paying at all. Sometimes it’s time. It’s taking up more than you have to give and the rest of your life is suffering for it. Sometimes it’s exhaustion. You used to love this and now you dread it. And sometimes, if you’re honest with yourself, it’s fear. You’ve hit a wall, you’re out of your depth, and quitting feels easier than pushing through.

Each of those calls for a different response.

The Conscious Incompetence Trap

Let me talk about the fear one first, because it’s the one that catches the most people out.

There’s a well known framework around levels of learning that describes a stage called conscious incompetence. It’s that moment when you’ve moved past the initial excitement of something and suddenly realised there’s a huge skill gap you didn’t know was there. You thought you knew what you were doing, and then you found yourself in a room full of people who are significantly further along than you, and everything felt overwhelming.

This happens to artists all the time. You start putting your work out there, feeling excited and ready, and then you realise it’s harder than you thought. The comparison kicks in. The self doubt arrives. And most people quit right at that point.

I nearly did recently with the speaking seminar work I’ve taken on. I walked in feeling confident, having recorded thousands of videos over the years. And then I sat in a room with world class speakers and felt completely out of my depth. I asked myself seriously whether I should just walk away.

And then I realised I’d be doing it because I was scared and not because it wasn’t right for me. So I broke it down into tiny steps, kept showing up, and started visualising myself doing it well. I’m not there yet. But I know I will be.

If you’re thinking about quitting something, ask yourself honestly: is this a sign it’s not right, or is it just hard right now?

When The Thing Genuinely Isn’t Working

Sometimes it really isn’t working and the honest answer is to do something different.

I’ve had to face this with the big online events that United ArtSpace became known for. Those two week long events don’t work the way they once did. The world has changed. Rather than quit them completely I asked myself how I could do this differently. The answer was shorter, more focused sessions. One hour masterclasses instead of two week commitments.

Social media is another one. I’ve gone back and forth on whether to quit it entirely. And what I landed on was neither a firm yes nor a firm no. It was a different question altogether: how do I use it in a way that I actually enjoy? That single reframe made the whole thing feel different.

So before you quit, ask whether you just need to change how you’re doing it.

Sometimes You Just Put It On The Shelf

Not everything needs a definitive answer. Sometimes the most honest thing you can do is acknowledge that something isn’t working right now and put it down for a while.

Sharon and I did this with Make Your Mark. We didn’t quit it. We just put it on the shelf and agreed we could come back to it if the time was ever right. There’s something really freeing about that distinction.

And here’s the thing: if it’s meant for you, it will find you again. The physical studio I closed down in 2012 felt like a loss at the time. But I’m now going back to that exact space to run in person workshops. It wasn’t the right time then. It absolutely is now.

And If It’s Your Art…

If you’re thinking about quitting your art because you don’t feel good enough, because there are too many people already doing it, because it just feels like nothing is working, I want to ask you one thing before you do.

What is it about your art that you absolutely love?

Go back to that. Strip everything else away and go back to that. Because when the purpose of your art is your voice, your process, your way of making sense of the world, there is always a place for it. It doesn’t need to compete with anyone. It just needs to be yours.

And when it’s that, the juice is always worth the squeeze.

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Have a great week & take care,

Michelle xo