Episode 204: You Are Not A Failure – You Are Just Really Good At Quitting

Jonathan Ressler

Hey, welcome back to Shut Up and Choose, the podcast that cuts through the noise, the nonsense, and all the bullshit that those internet gurus and Instagram jerk-offs are spewing your way, telling you how you should lose weight. You gotta go to the gym. You gotta do this. You gotta eat carbs. Don’t eat carbs. You gotta eat meat. Don’t eat meat. It’s all a bunch of shit. The bottom line is, we all know there’s only one way to do it, and that’s to eat fewer calories than you burn. It’s pretty straightforward.

But today we’re going to talk about something, and something I want to get straight right out of the gate. If you’re listening to this podcast, you probably want to lose some weight, or you probably want to figure some stuff out, and let me tell you something right away. You are not a failure, but you might be really fucking good at quitting.

Yeah, like I said. And I’m not here to be mean. I’m just really here to be honest, because honesty is what really sets people free from the lies that keep them stuck in that same 10 or 15-pound weight-loss yo-yo diet that you’ve been on for years.

So before we go any further, let me ask you something. How many times have you started a new workout routine. Not me, but you maybe. Or a clean eating plan or a 30-day challenge, and absolutely crushed it for like three days, maybe even a week. Maybe you were really good too. If you were really feeling great about it, you were meal prepping like a champ and drinking water like it was your job, skipping the drive-through and patting yourself on the back every time you chose grilled chicken over fries.

And then boom, life happens. You had a bad day. You got tired. You got bored. You had a moment of “ah, fuck it.” And suddenly the whole thing unraveled.

You basically turned and ran from your goals, and in that moment, and I only tell you this, like I said, I’m not here to be mean, because I’ve done it myself hundreds of times. But in that moment you probably thought something like, “Man, I always mess this up,” or “I just don’t have enough willpower to do this,” or “Maybe I’m just not cut out for this dieting thing. I’m such a failure.”

Let me stop you right there. You are not a failure. You’re just someone who hasn’t built follow-through.

And take it from someone who knows. I know. For 59 years, I had no follow-through when it came to managing my weight. So you’re someone who’s great at starting but hasn’t learned how to keep going when the motivation runs out, which, by the way, it always runs out.

Motivation is like your flaky buddy who hypes you up all week and then bails on dinner at the last minute because something came up and it’s just not feeling it. So it’s helpful when it shows up, but it’s unreliable as hell.

So the problem isn’t your ability. It’s your habit of tapping out when things get uncomfortable.

Let me be clear. Quitting doesn’t make you weak. It just makes you normal. Because most people quit. Most people start over a million times. Most people binge-watch workout videos while eating chips and then tell themselves, “I’ll get serious about this after the weekend.”

But hopefully you’re not most people.

You’re here. You’re listening to this. You want more. You want to stop spinning your wheels and actually make sustainable progress for real this time.

So let’s be honest and talk about what’s going on. You don’t suck at losing weight. You suck at sticking with it long enough to see the results. That’s it.

You don’t need another diet. You don’t need a new app. You don’t need a trainer. You don’t need a juice cleanse or any other jump-start challenge. You need to stop quitting.

You need to build follow-through like it’s a muscle. Because it is.

Follow-through is the boring, unsexy secret behind every transformation story.

It’s not about being perfect. It’s about not quitting.

Every time you fuck up or you stall or you don’t see instant results, think about it. How many times have you been so good for a few days, or even weeks, didn’t see the scale drop fast enough, and then just gave up, as if your body was going to magically undo years of beating the shit out of it and eating terribly in just one week?

That’s not failure. That’s impatience. That’s unrealistic expectations. That’s emotional thinking. And it’s totally fixable.

So in this episode, I’m not going to sugarcoat anything. I’m here to hold up the mirror and say, “Hey, maybe the plan didn’t fail. Maybe you just ghosted the process.”

And you know what? That’s great news. Because if quitting is the real issue, then not quitting is the solution.

Not being perfect. Not slaying every workout. Not even working out at all, for all I care. And it’s not living on broccoli and fucking kale.

Just not quitting.

That’s the shift. And that’s what we’re going to dive into in the rest of this episode.

This isn’t about hustle or guilt-tripping yourself into pushing through injury or exhaustion. This is about building trust in yourself.

It’s about becoming the kind of person who follows through, not just when it’s convenient or exciting, but when it’s inconvenient and boring and hard.

Because that’s where the real transformation happens. Not in the first-week hype. Not in motivational quotes. But in the quiet decision to keep going.

So if you’ve ever looked in the mirror and said, “Why can’t I just stick with this,” this episode is your answer.

You’re not a failure. You just keep quitting.

So let’s change that. Starting right now.

If you want to know more about my journey, you can buy my book, Shut Up and Choose. It’s on Amazon. It’s an Amazon bestseller.

I also have a video course called the Effortless Weight Loss Academy. It’s 23 videos, short, to the point, and it takes you through the mindset and how to get your head right, because mindset is the biggest part of weight loss.

You can get that at learnshutupandchoose.com.

That’s it for today.

You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to stop quitting.

The choice is yours.

Shut up and choose.