Episode 436 · March 10, 2026 · 12:48
436: When You Feel Like Quitting But Can’t: 3 Mindset Shifts to Help You Take the Next Step
About this episode
Have you ever sat in your car, knowing you need to walk into something difficult—but feeling like you just can’t do it?
That moment when your hand is on the steering wheel, the engine is off, and everything inside you is telling you to walk away… but you know you can’t. You know you have to face what’s waiting on the other side of that door.
We all experience moments where life feels overwhelming—whether it’s a tough conversation, a stressful day at work, difficult medical news, a relationship challenge, or a decision that feels bigger than our strength.
In this episode of Grit, Grace, & Inspiration, host Kevin Lowe dives into what he calls the “parking garage moment."
It’s that powerful moment in life when you feel like quitting, when exhaustion and fear hit at the same time, and when moving forward feels almost impossible.
But it’s also the moment where you still hold the power to make one more decision—to take one more step forward.
How to Find the Strength to Keep Going During Hard Times
If you’ve ever felt emotionally drained, mentally exhausted, or like you simply don’t have anything left to give, this episode is for you.
Inside this episode, you’ll discover:
- How to find strength even when you feel mentally, emotionally, and physically drained
- A powerful mindset shift that redefines what true strength and perseverance really look like
- Three practical strategies to help you move forward when life feels overwhelming and you want to give up
These tools will help you navigate the moments when quitting feels easier than continuing.
A Simple Mindset Shift That Can Change Your Life
Sometimes the biggest breakthroughs don’t happen during our strongest moments—they happen during our breakdowns.
This episode will challenge the way you think about resilience, showing you how one small decision—like opening the car door and stepping forward—can completely change the trajectory of your life.
If you're facing a difficult moment right now, this conversation will give you the motivation and practical tools to keep moving forward.
Mentioned Links & Resources
Listen to My Interview with Steve Garraty
Grab Your Copy of Steve's Book, Greatfruit:
Hey, it's Kevin!
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Read the conversation
Here is the opening of the episode transcript. Continue reading to expand the complete transcript without leaving this page. Choose any timestamp—or click a transcript paragraph—to start listening from that moment.
Kevin Lowe: Have you ever found yourself in that spot where you're.
Kevin Lowe: Sitting in your car?
Kevin Lowe: You've turned the engine off, and yet you can't take your hands off the steering wheel because you can't find the courage to.
Kevin Lowe: Open the door and get out of the car Because you don't want to face what you're about to deal with. Maybe it was in.
Kevin Lowe: The morning before heading Into what you knew was going to be a really stressful day at work.
Continue reading the full transcript: 129 additional lines
Kevin Lowe: Or maybe it's sitting in the parking lot of your doctor's office, getting ready to go in to Receive the results of the test.
Kevin Lowe: That you've been waiting to come back. Or maybe you're at home, you're parked in the driveway, And you know that you're about to have a really tough conversation with your spouse when.
Kevin Lowe: You go inside.
Kevin Lowe: It's in this moment.
Kevin Lowe: The moment in between, the moment when Everything tells you to just quit.
Kevin Lowe: To not go inside, and yet you know you have to.
Kevin Lowe: It's in this moment that today's episode meets you because it's inside of that moment that we're going to equip you with the tools you need to move forward, to do what you have to do.
Kevin Lowe: What's up, my friend, and welcome back to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.
Kevin Lowe: This is the podcast here for you today, helping you to get through what we're going to refer to as your.
Kevin Lowe: Own parking garage Moment. Now, who am I? Well, I am your host, Kevin Lowe, a guy who went blind over 20 years ago, and yet, for some reason, has been on this crazy mission in life to use what I've gone through to inspire the world.
Kevin Lowe: And hopefully today, that is you.
Kevin Lowe: And to inspire you to do what? Well, simply to keep.
Kevin Lowe: Going in life, To not allow.
Kevin Lowe: The little things to turn into big things, to not allow The big things.
Kevin Lowe: To stop you from achieving your goal.
Kevin Lowe: Now, today, we're taking inspiration from the guest inside of last week's episode.
Kevin Lowe: And that, of course, Was none other than the absolutely awesome Steve Garrity.
Kevin Lowe: And if you caught Steve's interview, you heard his story of being diagnosed with cancer.
Kevin Lowe: He would end up having a grapefruit-sized tumor that was cancerous.
Kevin Lowe: This all happened when he was only 18 years old.
Kevin Lowe: But what really I want to focus on today is just one little aspect of his story, one little piece that really stayed with me.
Kevin Lowe: And it was the story he told that happened inside of a parking garage.
Kevin Lowe: In case you didn't catch the interview or just to catch you up on speed to exactly what I'm referring to, I want to put you in the driver's seat of exactly where Steve was at this point in his life.
Kevin Lowe: Here he was, almost done with chemotherapy.
Kevin Lowe: He'd been doing it for 10 grueling months.
Kevin Lowe: At this point, he'd lost all his hair. He was exhausted. He was honestly a total wreck.
Kevin Lowe: He was physically and emotionally spent.
Kevin Lowe: He had nothing left to give.
Kevin Lowe: And there he was.
Kevin Lowe: Back in the parking garage for another chemo treatment. And yet he couldn't do it this time.
Kevin Lowe: He couldn't make himself go inside.
Kevin Lowe: He didn't have the strength.
Kevin Lowe: He didn't have the fight left in him.
Kevin Lowe: And he broke down.
Kevin Lowe: In that moment, he didn't want to keep going. He didn't want to go back in.
Kevin Lowe: He didn't want to receive another round of chemo.
Kevin Lowe: Now, I want to take a quick pause and.
Kevin Lowe: Illustrate what's really important here.
Kevin Lowe: This wasn't the beginning. This wasn't the diagnosis.
Kevin Lowe: This wasn't the first round of chemo.
Kevin Lowe: This was after almost a year of.
Kevin Lowe: Going through chemo.
Kevin Lowe: And the reason I bring this up is because this is what's so important.
Kevin Lowe: Sometimes the hardest moment isn't when something begins, but rather it's when you're tired of fighting.
Kevin Lowe: When you've been giving it your all and you feel like nothing's working and you feel like you have nothing left to give.
Kevin Lowe: It's the ninth inning of the baseball game.
Kevin Lowe: It's the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl.
Kevin Lowe: And you've been getting beat up all game long. and you feel like you got nothing left.
Kevin Lowe: And yet you've got a coach on the sideline screaming at you to run one more play.
Kevin Lowe: My friend, that's what we're doing today is encouraging you that at the lowest point that you find yourself, I want you to dig deep enough just to be able to run one more play.
Kevin Lowe: Now, to get real and honest with you, let's face it.
Kevin Lowe: We think that being strong is never breaking down.
Kevin Lowe: We feel like to be strong means that we don't have a parking garage moment.
Kevin Lowe: But instead, I want you to reframe that idea. Because what I feel real Strength looks like.
Kevin Lowe: Is sitting in a car in a parking garage. And you're unable to open the door Because you've just been going through 10 months of chemotherapy.
Kevin Lowe: Your body is completely wrecked. You are done. You're done fighting.
Kevin Lowe: And yet, You choose to.
Kevin Lowe: Open the door and step out of the car and walk back into the doctor's office anyway.
Kevin Lowe: That, my friend, is strength.
Kevin Lowe: And the key here Is that there's a key difference.
Kevin Lowe: Between wanting to quit and actually quitting.
Kevin Lowe: Your body might be screaming at you. Your emotions might be completely wrecked.
Kevin Lowe: And maybe your confidence is gone.
Kevin Lowe: But the decision, the choice.
Kevin Lowe: That's still in your control. You still hold the key here. You are the One who gets to make the decision.
Kevin Lowe: Whether or not you stay seated, whether or not you turn the car back on and drive away and pretend that everything can just go away.
Kevin Lowe: Or you can make the decision to give it one more shot.
Kevin Lowe: To run one more play.
Kevin Lowe: And the reason this is so important and the reason that I bring up the story of Steve Garrity to you is because we all have had that moment.
Kevin Lowe: We'll all be Faced with another moment just like it.
Kevin Lowe: I want you to think of the entrepreneur who's in this Moment right before.
Kevin Lowe: Finally launching the product that he's been working on, been designing.
Kevin Lowe: Or what about the parent before sitting down to have a tough Conversation with your kid?
Kevin Lowe: Or maybe it's an addict in the moment before they walk in to another AA meeting. It's the moment When we all ask ourselves.
Kevin Lowe: Do I have one more round in me? Am I able to run one more play?
Kevin Lowe: My friend, that's a question that we all have to wrestle at.
Kevin Lowe: Some point in our life.
Kevin Lowe: What I want you to remember is that so many times we.
Kevin Lowe: Want a breakthrough. Well, my friend, the breakthrough only happens when we're in the midst of a breakdown.
Kevin Lowe: You hold the key. You hold the choice, the decision to make to keep moving forward, To keep swimming.
Kevin Lowe: Wasn't that from the movie Nemo when the fish told us we just Have to keep swimming?
Kevin Lowe: My friend, you just have to keep moving forward. You have to keep going.
Kevin Lowe: Now, it's easier said than done.
Kevin Lowe: No doubt.
Kevin Lowe: And so I want to make this as tactical as possible, giving you some strategies. And so I've.
Kevin Lowe: Narrowed it down to three ideas that I want you to at least think about, to at least keep in the back of your mind, strategies that can help you get out of the car and walk in and face whatever you're about to deal with.
Kevin Lowe: My first step.
Kevin Lowe: Is to borrow strength.
Kevin Lowe: Sometimes we don't have the strength in us.
Kevin Lowe: Sometimes we've got to lean on others. We've got to borrow strength, Whether that's prayer or.
Kevin Lowe: Picking up the Phone and calling a friend, or sometimes it's.
Kevin Lowe: Borrowing it from Our future self.
Kevin Lowe: Because honestly, that's what we're doing it for. We're doing it for the person We want to.
Kevin Lowe: Be, For the life we want. So if you don't have the strength right now.
Kevin Lowe: I want you to Borrow it from your future self.
Kevin Lowe: From tomorrow. Step two, I want you to shrink the horizon. Instead of you Thinking to yourself about the next 10 months, I want you to just focus on today, this appointment, this meeting.
Kevin Lowe: Don't think about the years ahead.
Kevin Lowe: Don't think about the big picture. Don't Think about what.
Kevin Lowe: Could happen on the other side.
Kevin Lowe: Instead, I just want you to focus on taking the next step.
Kevin Lowe: Shrink your horizon.
Kevin Lowe: And my third tip.
Kevin Lowe: Is I want you to remember why you're here, why you started.
Kevin Lowe: There's a reason that.
Kevin Lowe: You're in the Fight you're in. There's a reason this matters to you.
Kevin Lowe: For Steve, he was fighting for his life.
Kevin Lowe: For you, maybe you're fighting for your job. You're fighting for your relationship.
Kevin Lowe: You're fighting for you, your freedom.
Kevin Lowe: My friend, you just have to make the next step.
Kevin Lowe: Open the car door, step out, exit the parking garage, walk into the door and sit down and do whatever has To be done. So I leave you with one final thought.
Kevin Lowe: If maybe you find yourself in your own parking garage moment right now and you feel like you can't keep going, You're crying. You're angry.
Kevin Lowe: You're upset.
Kevin Lowe: You're angry at the world.
Kevin Lowe: You're angry that this has to be happening.
Kevin Lowe: Why can't things be good? My friend, I want you to be reminded that you got this.
Kevin Lowe: I want you to recognize how you're feeling, To acknowledge it, to understand it.
Kevin Lowe: And then you know what I want you to do? I want you to open the door.
Kevin Lowe: And I want you to step outside.
Kevin Lowe: And the reason is because this next choice that you make, the next action you take.
Kevin Lowe: It might just change your entire life. My friend, if you didn't listen to my Interview with Steve Garrity.
Kevin Lowe: I highly encourage you To go back and listen to his interview. It was just one episode previous to this and get to hear the full story.
Kevin Lowe: To get to hear from him firsthand of exactly what this parking garage moment was like, all in the hopes of it equipping you with the motivation that you need to be able to keep going when times are tough.
Kevin Lowe: If today's episode spoke to you, I would love to invite you to maybe leave a rating and review for the podcast.
Kevin Lowe: If you've never left a rating or review for grit, grace, and inspiration, please consider on whatever app you're on, clicking the little five-star button and leaving a review.
Kevin Lowe: I would love to hear from you.
Kevin Lowe: I would love to know what is resonating with the podcast, what you think.
Kevin Lowe: So, like I said, if you've never done it, maybe consider this being your invitation to do so right now.
Kevin Lowe: And until next time, my friend, I'm, of course, your host, Kevin Lowe.
Kevin Lowe: And this was another episode of Grit, Grace, & Inspiration.
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