A few years ago, one of my instructors at OSU did his dissertation on something called “escalation of commitment” (no it has nothing to do with puttin’ a ring on it…). It stuck around in my mind, and it’s helped me make some tough job decisions the past few years. So I thought I’d share it.
Escalation of commitment, according to good ol’ wikipedia, is where people keep investing in a decision, because of their previous investment, despite new evidence suggesting that the decision was probably wrong.
To break it down for ya, this means the longer you spend working on something, in a certain job, etc., the harder it is to leave it….because you don’t want to “waste” all of that investment/time/money that you’ve put into it. You’ve probably heard it described as “throwing good money after bad,” although I always get distracted by that description. I keep thinking who’s throwing all of this money – where is it coming from, and how can i get some thrown at me? (besides the obvious stripper answer)
Our human nature hates to “quit” anything, and we don’t like to think of ourselves as wasteful. So when we spend months, or even decades, going a certain direction with our lives, we hate to leave our investment behind and go a different direction. Today let’s talk specifically about jobs. Example: What happens if you spend 4-6 years in college, pay an arm and a leg and possibly a kidney, and finally get the job of your dreams – only to discover you hate it? What do you do? Many people would keep working at this job and feel tied down because of their investment into it. I have heard many people tell me how much they hate their professions, but they don’t want their degree to go to waste.
They say when the economy tanked last year, it devastated many people’s lives but set a lot of people free. Some were able to start over and do what they had always dreamed of doing. I guess they could have done that without the Dow crashing, but they hadn’t – why not? Because pursuing a dream is scary and risky. And we have committed so much into the story we’re now living. It’s hard to leave that.
So I just want to leave you with ONE THOUGHT – one question for you today:
What would you do if you were starting again from nothing – if the job and degree were all gone? If you didn’t have the degree, would you still want to work in that area? At that company? If you lost everything in a Hurricane Katrina-like event, would you rebuild and go back to life as usual? Or would you try something crazy; something you’ve always wanted to do? Well don’t wait for a hurricane to pursue your dream – we’re in Oklahoma, and tornadoes are fickle.
Look at your life – are you doing what makes you happy? Now you know I’m not talking about doing something crazy and making your kids eat dirt while you go back to college. But I think many times pursuing our dreams is scary, but achievable. And I just don’t think we’ll look back at the end of our lives and think Gosh, I’m so glad I didn’t take that uncomfortable step and pursue my dream.
Life is a risk. Life is too short to hate what you do. Do what makes your heart sing.
Kinda is an author, teacher, speaker, entrepreneur, and hopeless wanderer. Her favorite places in the world include Manarola, Italy, and Gimmelwald, Switzerland. In her free time, you can find her bargain shopping and hanging out at coffee shops.
wow! i agree it is just scary…thanks for sharing your thoughts! they are very insightful!
This is very good, definately makes you stop and think. Thanks for sharing!