In 2014, Goli Kalkhoran quit practicing law and embarked on a career change journey to figure out what actually made her happy. Since then she’s had 2 kids, started a business, dabbled in passion projects, and forged a completely new path that lights her up. And yet, she’d still says she’s figuring it out.
When I was quitting, one thing I constantly thought about was how I was going to “waste” all of the years and money I had invested in becoming a lawyer.
I obsessed about it. It kept me stuck for so long. I kept thinking about how I’d have to start over and lose all of that hard work.
We all fall for this kind of thinking. It’s called the Sunk Cost Fallacy. We stick with something that we no longer even want based entirely on how much we have already invested. The more we invest, the longer we stay.
And so we end up losing more time/money instead of cutting our losses and moving on.
It wasn’t until I realized that my decision to hold on to these Sunk Costs had other Opportunity Costs. Because deciding not to do something is still a decision.
Every potential project or job I was not pursuing because I was holding on so tightly to my legal career–a career I knew I didn’t want– meant I lost that opportunity.
And I realized that I was giving up the potential of having something better than I could ever imagine.
Life is full of so many possibilities but you have to be willing to let go of what you’re holding on to in order to grab it.
Goli created Lessons from a Quitter to highlight to other people who have broken free from an unfulfilling career to create a life that they love. And, in the process, she hopes to show you that it’s ok to quit. In fact, your happiness may depend on it!
This post is republished with permission from Goli Kolkhoran, you can find her original post and more in her Lessons from a Quitter Facebook group here.
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