Sunk Cost Stop
Would I start this today if I hadn't already started it?
Write down what you've already invested — time, money, reputation, effort. Now cover it with your hand and ask: "If I were starting fresh today with none of that invested, would I choose this path?"
You're continuing something primarily because of what you've already put into it.
The investment genuinely increases future value — not all persistence is sunk cost fallacy.
Why it works
Past investment is gone regardless of what you do next — but the brain treats it as a reason to continue, trapping you in losing positions.
The money is spent. The time is gone. Nothing you do next changes that. But your brain doesn’t process it that way — abandoning a failing path feels like confirming a loss, which triggers the same pain circuits as physical injury. So you keep going, hoping to ‘recover’ what’s already unrecoverable. The physical act of covering your past investment — hiding the number — separates what happened from what happens next. The only question that matters is: knowing what I know now, would I start this today? If no, the answer is already clear.