HOW TO KNOW WHEN TO CUT YOUR LOSSES AND MOVE ON

ABOUT THE EPISODE

It’s often easier to keep going in a certain direction since the known may require less effort than the unknown.  But is that always the best approach?  Discover how to know when it might be best to cut your losses and move on.

TRANSCRIPT

In the busy world we live in, persistence is often rewarded.

We look at these highly successful leaders and we talk about, gee, they just didn’t give up and they went after their goals, no matter what the cost.  And they overcame any obstacle that they needed to.  And that’s obviously very admirable and something that many of us do want to aspire to.  We just need to be more persistent.

But there’s also a strategy that a lot of these highly successful leaders use that maybe isn’t talked about enough.  And that is this idea that somehow you just need to know when to just cut your losses and let go.  Move in a different direction if something isn’t working.

And so the critical question to ask then is, “How do I know when it’s time to cut my losses?” And maybe give up and try something else, is just to ask yourself right now, “What is my current path, and my current level of activity, and my current direction really costing me?”  100%.   “What is it costing me in my personal life, what is costing me financially, what it’s costing me professionally, to stay on the track that I’m going on?” 

And so once you have that good assessment in mind, you have to understand, are those costs worth it? And if you feel that the costs are worth it, then great, you stay on that path. 

But if you really are honest with yourself and you look at the total cost of sticking on that same path and the probability of success by doing that, you may find that the price is just too high. 

And so that’s the time to move on.  Let go.  Disengage emotionally from that particular outcome or that particular strategy, and move in a different direction.