Many people believe that the morethey will take on responsibilities and the harder they work, the faster success will come to them. But this is not true at all. To achieve your goal, you need to be able to refuse hundreds of opportunities and focus on just one. But what should you do if halfway through it turns out that the business is absolutely hopeless? In this case, no matter how much of a "fighter" you are, there is no point in persisting. Greg McKeown, author of the book "Essentialism", teaches you to stop in time and get rid of everything unnecessary.

Irreversible expenses

The propensity for sunk costs is veryA common psychological phenomenon. It is the tendency to invest time, money, or energy in a project that is not profitable because the initial investment can never be recouped. It is like a vicious cycle: the more we invest, the more we want the project to pay off, and the more we are willing to invest more. Find the courage to admit your mistakes and back out of your commitments, regardless of the sunk costs. To help you do this, remember the story of a man named Henry Bribbom, who spent his entire savings ($2,600) on a fairground game. The more money he spent, the more he wanted to win. And the prize was a banana.

Effect of ownership

The endowment effect is the tendency to underestimatethings that don’t belong to us and overvalue our possessions. In an experiment demonstrating the power of the endowment effect, Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and a group of his colleagues gave half of the participants coffee cups. The “owners” of the cups were asked how much they would be willing to sell their cups for, and the other half were asked how much they would be willing to pay for them. It turned out that the “owners” of the cups were not willing to give up their “possessions” for less than $5.25, while the “buyers” did not plan to spend more than $2.25–$2.75 on them. In other words, the mere fact of owning the cups made the “owners” value them higher and made it harder to part with them.Unfortunately, the endowment effect extendson our activities. When we feel that a task is ours, it becomes more difficult to give it up. To cope with this task, imagine that you have not yet received this task. Do not ask yourself what will happen if you miss this alternative. Formulate it this way: “If I did not have this opportunity, how much would I be willing to sacrifice to get it?”

Recognition error - the key to success

Of course, no one wants to admit thathe made the wrong choice, but if he continues to be faithful to it, the subsequent losses may be much greater than the initial ones. Adults are afraid of seeming wasteful and uneconomical not only to others, but also to themselves. But when we admit a mistake, it becomes our past. If we deny our wrongness, we continue to drive in circles. There is nothing shameful in admitting mistakes. At least we show that we have become wiser than we were in the past.

Don't try to please everyone

In the film "Tootsie" Dustin Hoffman playsan unsuccessful actor who is trying to find work. The comedy begins with a series of episodes in which Hoffman fails an acting audition. First, he is told, "You're too young for us," then, "We need someone younger." A third director says, "You're not tall enough for us," and when Hoffman says he can grow, he is told, "No, you're too tall." Hoffman's character needs the job so much that he continues, "Listen, I'm actually shorter. I just came in special shoes." The director insists, "We need someone else," but Hoffman pleads, "I can be someone else!" In our personal and professional lives, we often behave like this character, trying to pass ourselves off as someone we are not. So what can we do?When emotions make us do somethinginappropriate or not being yourself, it is useful to listen to an outside opinion. Find a person who is not involved in the current situation and who will not be affected by your choice. If he does not approve of your behavior, he will say so directly.

Stop agreeing to anything

Some people's lives are packed to the brimpromises made during casual conversations with random people. First, you chat with your neighbor about your job at the school’s PTA, listen to a coworker start a new social campaign, or agree with a friend about going to a new restaurant. And then — bam! You’re hooked. This advice may sound trite, but if you discipline yourself to pause for at least five seconds in a conversation before agreeing to something, you can save yourself a lot of unwanted promises. Before you say, “That sounds good, I’ll take it,” ask yourself, “How important is this to me?” And if you’re already regretting agreeing to something, find a way to get out of the unpleasant commitment. Apologize and tell the other person you didn’t have the full picture in mind when you made the promise.

Do not be afraid to skip something

Fear of missing out on something important is one offactors that prevent us from giving up unpleasant responsibilities. To combat fear, use reverse testing. This is a way to check whether giving up an activity will lead to negative consequences in your life. Have you ever made promises to your clients, colleagues, friends or family members that seemed important to you, but which they barely noticed? By forgetting about a task for a few days or weeks, you will check whether it really matters to the people around you. Or, for once, do not prepare another cumbersome report. Perhaps, several weeks will pass, and none of your colleagues will even mention that they lack the report. This way, you will understand that you can finally give up the process. We feel guilty saying “no” to people we know or abandoning a project we agreed to. Besides, no one likes to break promises. However, if you want to be successful and happy, you need to learn how to do this.

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