I have been re-pondering the sunk cost fallacy lately.
It’s the sort of thing that can sneak up on you and influence your thinking, if you don´t keep it in check.
What is sunk cost fallacy?
Let’s say, you hate your job. There’s something else you much rather do.
But you don’t quit, because you spend years in school and you already worked there 5 years. You feel all that time already spend will be “wasted” if you don’t stick to it.
That’s the sunk cost fallacy talking.
The fact is: you already spend that time, that money, that energy – whatever the cost was,
It’s in the past. You already did all that.
It’s a sunk cost, regardless of you choose to do now or in the future.
The only thing that should influence your decisions, is who you are NOW.
What we did in the past has not been wasted, it’s just not the right thing anymore.
We are wiser and a different person than our past self who made those choices.
We learn, we grow, and we change.
Right now, I am trying to figure out what the next step is for my business.
I know I need something new – a new project, a new direction. I am not sure what that looks like yet, or how big a change that needs to happen.
But I can hear this bias in the back of my brain, whispering to me: “but it works, it runs smoothly, and you spend years building it, don’t change anything, just sit back and enjoy”. This is the sunk cost fallacy talking – it does not care that I love building things and making it work.
Staying in the status quo will not be something I enjoy.
That’s not who I am.
In my experience, there is often a much higher cost to NOT doing something.
It will be the difference between making me thrive or feeling stale.
So not woth it.