Once you’ve committed to a choice, your identity fuses with it. And quitting feels like dying. Psychologists call this the sunk cost fallacy. It’s the tendency to keep investing in something simply because you’ve already invested so much. For example: Maybe you’ve been in your career for 15 years. You’ve built a reputation. A story about who you are. Walking away doesn’t just feel like a career change. It feels like unbecoming yourself. And this is the same reason people stay in cities they hate, friendships they've outgrown, and apartments that are too small. Because leaving means admitting the last five years weren't "building toward something." They were just... five years.