Many factors have determined the direction your career has taken. They include your interests and what you value, your personality traits, what you are good at, your circumstances, and your willingness to change direction. Other factors are the prevailing market conditions at any given point in time, the opportunities you take, those you knockback, and those you create for yourself. Your career path has evolved, and you are now at the intersection of all these factors. You can change direction at any point you choose.

Making a career pivot has its challenges, and this can keep us stuck. You can find yourself under social pressure and met with the unsolicited opinions of others as you contemplate such a move. There is also a dysfunctional belief that people hold that can also hold you back. It’s called the Sunk Cost Fallacy. A sunk cost is a cost that has been paid and can’t be recovered. The fallacy is that the more energy or money or personal resources we devote to something, the harder it is to abandon it, e.g., the cost of our law degree and the decade we spent slaving away as a lawyer trying to climb the ladder of success stops us from changing careers even though we really don’t like even being a lawyer and that makes us miserable.

Many of us succumb to this faulty thinking trap because of the time and potentially money we spent studying and gaining experience in a particular career path. This trap forces us to stick with it, although we know we aren’t suited to this path.

Here are some points to consider to overcome the sunk cost fallacy:

1. Accept the money has been spent because dwelling on it only makes matters worse and limits your thinking as to what your future possibilities are
2. Remind yourself that your university degree does not determine your career. If it is no longer as relevant if you go down a different path, it has by no means been a waste of your time or your money. There are many transferable skills from your university degree and your work experience that will be invaluable in your new career.
3. Ask yourself if your pride is getting in the way? Would you struggle to admit to others that you are not happy? How will you react with others around you tell you to take the safe option and stick with what you know?
4. Remember that careers in today’s world of work are no longer linear. Change is constant, and adaption is critical. Plenty of people make career pivots; you can do it too.

Your career provides the path to happiness, fulfillment, dignity, purpose, and financial security. As you find yourself unhappy in your work, your well-being can suffer if you don’t take action. Are you willing to take that risk? The sunk cost you face now may seem small compared to the price you could pay for doing nothing.