Career change and the sunk cost fallacy: what’s really keeping you stuck

There’s a psychological phenomenon called the sunk cost fallacy.

The more you invest in something, the harder it can feel to walk away from it - even when, deep down, you know it’s not the right fit for you anymore.

Our brains are wired to avoid loss. So when you think about leaving your current career, it’s natural for your mind to focus on what you might be “giving up” - the money spent on your education, your years of experience, the time and energy you’ve invested, and the identity you’ve built along the way.

But those years aren’t something you can get back, and staying in a career that doesn’t work anymore doesn’t protect that investment. It just means adding more time, more energy, and more of your life to something that isn’t feeling right for you.

The past isn’t wasted, it’s part of your story and it has given you something valuable.

Along the way, you’ve built skills, gained insights, and developed a clearer sense of what works for you and what doesn’t. You’ve also collected experience you can carry forward, whatever comes next.

So instead of focusing on what’s behind you, try to turn your attention to what you’re working with right now.

What skills do you have? What kinds of activities leave you feeling energised - and which ones tend to drain you? What resources are available to you? And who is there to support you?

Change can feel really scary, there’s lots of uncertainty and fear involved.

And at the same time, staying somewhere that doesn’t feel right for you is also a choice, even if it’s an understandable one.

What would feel more like a “waste” to you?

Walking away from a career that no longer feels right…

Or spending the rest of your working life tied to that career, because it happens to be the thing you chose to study when you were 25?

Cheering you on!

x Melanie