I like to refer to this phenomenon as playing pot-committed (for those of you who are into poker).
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Pot-Commited
I know so many people that live their lives pot-committed. The terms comes from the following poker situation. Let's say you've already been betting against someone and you placed $500 in the pot, total of the pot is $1000. The person across from you wants to raise the stakes to $550 per person. At this moment you realise you will probably lose because you recalculated the odds. You also notice there is a little voice inside your head going; Ey, you only have to pay $50 more, otherwise you will lose the $500! You pay $50 extra and instead of losing $500 you now lost $550.
Turn Around
I see this happening in life all the time. People know they should quit their job, end the relationship, sell the car or whatever it might be. They know they have made a wrong choice, however they cannot commit to setting it right because of the damage it may do.
"If I break up with him now it will hurt him so much, so I can't"
"If I quit my study now I have worked 3 years for nothing"
Examples like this are being flung around my head all the time by family, friends and strangers. Here's the deal. The second you figure out you made a wrong decision, set it right. As the Turkish proverb goes:
"No matter how long you've travelled down the wrong road, turn around".
What's Holding You Back
The main issue that is holding people back in my opinion is twofold.
They cannot admit the fact they made a wrong choice or don't want to face the feeling of losing on an investment. For instance, when I studied psychology for 1 year and I figured it wasn't for me, I knew that quitting would mean I had 'wasted' one year on a study and not getting rewarded a diploma.
They think that if they just keep going, eventually the investment will bring a positive return.
If you are a number 1 person, that is not too bad, one day you will make the choice. If you area number 2 person you've got a really big issue if you don't realise this. It's the people who remain married to 'the wrong guy' for 25 years. Here's the problem:
You think the road that you travelled on, though wrong, is eventually going to curve and make you end up on the place where you want to be. Or you hope it will cross with another road that will lead you to your destiny. If you are this kind of person look at this map of Norway:
You're Stuck!
If you are the black dot above, and supposed to go to the left to: Loding, instead you take the red route up. There is literally no other way to go back to Loding then to turn around. You will have to leave the country, take a ferry into Sweden, swirl all the way around and still you won't get back to Loding. This is you! This is your life. If you are seriously unhappy with a situation in your life, you can try to fix it, but if you realise you need to go to Loding and are on the road to Bognes, turn around!