You always hear some of the most influential people say “never give up,” and I couldn’t agree more, but I’ve come to learn that at times this saying becomes overgeneralized and hurts more than it helps.

When I think of never giving up, I usually think of the unwavering tenacity an individual displays when facing adversity, and in many ways, this is true. When you have a goal that aligns with your principal values and your grand ambition, you should pursue it with restless drive. But, at least in my case, I applied the idea to every aspect of my life, and this hindered my overall ability to think rationally and work towards my grand ambition.

Sometimes it just feels wrong to quit on a project, but it's not actually quitting if you put it on the back burner to pursue something you find more important. A mentor of mine put it well using an analogy to powerlifting: if your goal is to be more fit so you power lift every morning, but you decide you want to stop doing that in order to hit cardio, there is nothing wrong with that. Both options bring you closer to your goal, and it’s not like you would be quitting to eat ice cream and sit on your couch.

I later noticed this same message being conveyed in a much better way than I could put into words in a book called Grit by Angela Duckworth. It was characterized by a tree structure when defining your goals. Everyone has high-level goals, which are comprised of middle-level goals and subsequently lower-level goals. It is the high-level goals where one's tenacity should shine through. They are essentially one's grand ambition. Don’t drop them, don’t give up on them. But the lower level is where things tend to change; sometimes lower-level goals are set unintentionally, and as a result, they might not have a big impact on the high-level goals as we think. They should have the ability to change quickly to better suit your goals.

I put this into use when I began putting more energy into an app I was building over other projects. Originally, I didn’t feel so good about not completing one of my earlier projects, but I later realized I hadn’t set it with much intention. I made a choice to put it on pause, and instead, I picked up the app and was able to successfully come to a finished product. I didn’t publish it on the App Store, but I did publish the code and wrote an article about my experience with it.

Anyways, this was a quick thing I wanted to put into words to properly process. Putting everything together, don’t be scared to change your lower-level goals, and if you do decide to change them, be intentional. Make sure that the change will bring you closer to the original goal. Do not abandon your higher-level goals.