How to use basic human psychology to your advantage.

Example 1: The sunk cost fallacy

A sunk cost being an investment (could be time, money, emotion, effort or a combination) that you can’t get back. The more you invest in something the harder it is to give that up.

It is why we pursue failing business ideas, stay in unfulfilling careers and unhappy relationships. The investment reduces our ability to think clearly and rationally.

You can use this tendency to your advantage by investing in your goals with actions (time, effort, emotion).

The more you invest the more averse to giving up or doing things that will negatively impact your goals you become.

Starting your day by investing in your goal (any action that is pushing you towards your goal) means that your subsequent behaviours are more likely to be in line with your goal too.

The best way to implement this is to start your day with a step towards your goal.

Here is what I have my clients do on commit to 6.

I go into more detail on this concept here.