My friend was feeling overwhelmed one month into her new job and had an open conversation about it with her manager, who gave her some solid piece of advice.

Get to the end of your probation and then see how you feel.

As she is nearing that time now, she is much more comfortable. She has adapted to the lifestyle at the new workplace and gotten better at managing her time, stress and the workload.

Those words from her manager were remarkable for a couple of reasons. (A) She didn’t dismiss the concerns and give platitudes to reassure her. (B) She indirectly told her that this feeling is quite common at that particular point of time, that she was not alone.

I find that this principle applies to any new long term task we set for ourselves – be it a new job or a fitness regime. At the beginning, most of us feel inadequate and overwhelmed. Giving ourselves that probation period helps us to acclimatize to the lifestyle changes. And when we evaluate how we are at that point, with emotions no longer clouding our mind, then we can be more confident of our analytical and decision making capabilities.

Give yourself a probation period. Then decide whether to grit through or quit.