Exciting work, yes. But not fulfilling.

"I didn't have a life," Galvin said. "I was leaving for work at dark and coming home at dark."

Fed up, Galvin, 34, started exploring her options. And once she figured out what she wanted in life, she took a calculated gamble. She quit her job and moved to Hawai'i, starting anew with her own business on her own terms.

Experts would say Galvin's decision is a prime example of what to do when the going gets rough or your job no longer fits what you want in life: Give your options plenty of thought and act on them. Quit and start anew if it makes you happy. But do it smartly.

For Galvin, a year of researching the Islands' box-office numbers led to opening the Aloha Agency, a boutique marketing shop dealing exclusively with films. The agency has become the local representative for companies such as Sony Pictures, Dreamworks and Disney.

"I definitely took a pay cut, but I have a quality of life now," Galvin said. She also had a mantra that kept her working toward her goal: If she could wake up in paradise every day, why shouldn't she do it?

Getting the heck outta dodge

Although conventional wisdom suggests quitters never win and winners never quit, quitting isn't all bad. Galvin is but one example. Even reality TV contestants are getting in on the act.

On "American Idol" this year, contender Marlea Stroman dropped out after her son got a cold. Besides, she said, the people in Hollywood weren't very nice to her.

Verna Felton

Meredith Phillips and Ian McKee, the alumni couple of ABC's 2004 version of "The Bachelorette," reawakened public interest by quitting each other.

Quitting has always been cool, said Evan Harris, author of "The Art of Quitting" (Barron's, $14.95), especially if it's done for the right reasons.

"Our country was founded by quitters," Harris said. "They left England and said, 'Forget this. We are so out of here. We are not putting up with this anymore.' Reality-show quitters are just a continuum of the great American quitting wave. They are the new wave."

Everybody has quit something. Even if you got a better job and left your company, you had to quit one job to move on to another one, Harris explained. And everyone, she said, should be willing to give up the "quittable things."

For Marne Dupere, giving up her Los Angeles vintage furniture and design store — and high-profile clientele like Brad Pitt and Courteney Cox Arquette — was the best move she ever made.

"I was creatively burned out," said Dupere, 38.

Dupere and Galvin are best friends, so Dupere decided to move to Honolulu to work with Galvin.

"We were truly on a treadmill," said Dupere, creative director at the Aloha Agency. "It's so much more important to have a quality of life than to be chasing the dollar."

Now Galvin and Dupere can't imagine life any other way.

As the bridges burn

"I would like to see people quit jobs that aren't a good fit, people that aren't a good fit and bad habits," Harris said.

Or harmful habits, such as smoking.

Lori Igawa

"I had to keep myself busy, and I had to find other things to do," said the hospital patient-service coordinator, who quit smoking last November.

So Igawa turned to walking, which she does every day for about an hour. She has lost nearly 20 pounds.

Quitting "was one of the best things that I've done for myself," Igawa said.

If you've got something in mind you want to quit — a competition, your job, a relationship or whatever it is, Lois Schaefer, a clinical psychologist in Michigan, advises thinking carefully before going through with it. Make sure depression, fear or a lack of self-esteem isn't driving the instinct to quit.

People who give up quickly usually didn't feel they were cut out for the task in the first place, Schaefer said.

"In order to pursue a goal, you have to be able to envision yourself achieving the required task," she suggests. "If you do not see yourself as being able to do so, you won't put forth the required effort. You feel helpless because Donald Trump is too intimidating, or a competitor is overpowering you."

The danger in quitting prematurely is later regretting the decision and having to live with that.

"You would have the potential of carrying with you forever that disappointment in yourself, which would be a shame," Schaefer said. "You divorce a man and think, 'I didn't know how good I had it.' You just live with regret for the rest of your life."

But then again — when quitting takes place after careful weighing of facts, it might make you one of the happiest people in the world.

Gannett News Service reporter Kimberly Hayes Taylor contributed to this report. Advertiser staff writer Zenaida Serrano added Hawai'i information.