Sometimes, motivation and perserverance are important qualities. You can't succeed without taking risks and going the extra mile. However, sometimes it's best to know when to call it quits, and save yourself a good twenty minutes which you could use to take a nap.
If you have to write, edit, and submit an article for revision in eighteen minutes, it might be time to give up. If you now have seventeen minutes to get the article out of the way, and you've only written five sentences, it's definitely time to give up. Once you realize that the obligations you have placed upon yourself are literally meaningless, you realize the extent of your freedom. Nobody told you to write articles on a weekly basis; the only person whose life would change if you stopped is your own.
The same applies to numerous other ventures in life. If you have a 35% in biology and your final is the next day, you could study and bring yourself up five points. Or you could binge Stranger Things for the sixth time because grades are only important if you make them important. You could go to bed at a reasonable hour, or try to run a mile every morning, but your life will be much better once you see that these activities are fit solely for those who are disgustingly motivated and destined to succeed.
Ultimately, everything is a choice, yet free will is an illusion. The wisest words I tell myself evry morning but never follow are "give up."
