Starting new things can be hard.
One reason it’s hard to start new things is that it’s hard to give up on the old things. We worry that if we give up on something—whether it’s a job or a relationship or a hobby or a business venture—then all the time, money, effort, and emotional energy we put into it will be wasted.
The desire to avoid waste can be helpful if it leads us to be mindful of how we invest our time, money, effort, and emotional energy. The problem is when we overgeneralize our desire to avoid waste by trying to recover costs that can’t be recovered. Economists refer to these as sunk costs—costs you’ve already incurred that you can’t get back.
Because we can’t get those costs back, economists say we should ignore them when making decisions about what to do now. When we try to salvage our sunk costs, we end up throwing good time, money, effort, and emotional energy after bad. We continue on paths that no longer serve us simply because we’ve already invested so much in them. We stay in relationships that aren’t going anywhere, cities that don’t fit our current lifestyle, and jobs we’ve outgrown.
As we emerge from the pandemic, now is an ideal time to evaluate whether our past choices fit where we want to go now.
How to avoid the sunk cost trap
… Continue reading at Psychology Today.
Also published on Medium.
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