Knowing when to Start Over

‘Everybody's got a past. The past doesn't equal the future unless you live there.’ – Tony Robbins

When it comes to leaving a miserable job, calling time on an unhappy relationship or ditching joyless exercise classes, too often many of us simply decide to stay the course.

Why can't you let go and move on? Perhaps you can't see an alternative. Often, it's difficult to walk away if you can't see another path to take, especially if walking away could mean quite a big change in your life.

Maybe you feel you've made a commitment and so should stick with it and put up with the difficulties. Perhaps you don't want to admit that you were wrong to have put up with a bad situation for so long. Anyway, you're so used to it, you may as well carry on.

You're probably thinking about the sunk costs: the time, effort, love or money you have already put in and can never get back.

But sunk costs can fool you into sticking with something. You continue to put more time, effort or money into someone or something even though it's plainly not doing you any good.

Of course, you don't want to give up too easily on your commitments, but refusing to let go of something that's making you miserable means you are allowing your past to dictate your present.

Don't keep making the same mistake. Know that strength shows in your ability not only to persist but also to start over, to let go of the past and begin again in the present.