Should I stay or should I go?
I'm often helping clinicians make decisions in their career, and something I always make sure my clients understand is that I'm not attached to whether they stay or go.
I don't encourage ALL clinicians to quit their jobs, open their own practice or switch to an entirely new career. I also don't encourage ALL clinicians to stay where they are.
What's more important than the details of the decisions you make are your reasons behind them.
And one of these reasons that I help you identify is The Sunk Cost Fallacy.
This sounds something like...
"Well I want to leave my career but I spent too many years studying for it."
"I've invested SO much money into specialising into this area, there's no way I can pivot now."
"You have no idea how much work I put into setting up this practice, I can't just close it!"
In other words, we keep going in a direction purely because we've invested so many resources into that direction already - even when another path would be more beneficial. And there's a reason it's called a fallacy and not just responsible decision-making. I spent SO much more time and money investing in courses that I thought might end up making me feel excited and fulfilled in my career instead of just transitioning to a career that I already was excited about. You can see how it can become self-reinforcing and leave us unhappy, resentful & regretful of our past choices.
Previous investments of time, money or energy are not good reasons to keep doing something, however logical it might feel.
If your brain has a hard time believing that, think about it longer-term. Even if making this decision takes you a step or two backwards in terms of what you're earning or your expertise in an area, wouldn't you rather do that in the short-term in order to spend the next DECADE(S) of your life doing on a path you actually want to be on?
So... if you weren't worried about "wasting" the time and resources you've already spent, what would you be doing with your one precious life?
