Fitness Belief Systems & Sunk Costs

One of my favorite bloggers, Seth Godin, recently wrote a post about not getting caught in the snare of "sunk costs."  Although this concept is often referred to in business, it's also very applicable to your health and fitness lifestyle.

Unless you are 100% happy with your current state of wellness, you'll probably have to take a look at your relationship with sunk costs.  For example, is your idea of a healthy breakfast centered around a bowl of shreddies with skim milk and a glass of orange juice?  To most, that would sound like a pretty reasonable thing to eat in the morning.  But if you are trying to lose fat, it's not a great way to start the day. 

Your belief about breakfast food is a sunk cost.  You've invested in it for years.  That's something that is difficult to let go.  If you choose to believe otherwise, you are losing all those years of belief in what you were doing.

That's one reason wellness habits are so hard to break.  There is a sunk cost involved with almost all of them.  I remember my friend Brad Pilon, author of Eat Stop Eat, talking about how the entire wellness industry is built around belief systems.  There are no casual opinions about health and fitness, there are profound convictions.  An argument about fitness is likely to resemble an exchange between fans of two professional sports teams.  It goes well beyond logic and enters the realm of pure emotion.

So if you aren't happy with your current level of health and fitness, take a good look at your sunk costs.  What habits have brought you to the point where you are right now.  Are there any areas where you have to cut your losses and change your beliefs?

Do you have any experiences to share in which letting go of a sunk cost resulted in a positive shift in your fitness or your life in general?

Comments

[Jason socci]

Hello Adam,

Sunk costs in my life are sneaky. Oftentimes they're just nagging feelings, just below the surface trying to influence me. Even though my current training has gone beyond more weight, more reps, more sets...etc., it doesn't stop my silly brain from asking, "Are you sure that was enough?" As my training gets better as well as my results I'm getting more confident with my answer these days, but that little voice is still there.

I'll have to think more about this one.

Thanks for the post,
Jason Socci

[Adam Steer]

Hey Jason,

Thanks for chiming in. The "more is better" mentality is insidious, especially for us Westerners... Keep us posted.

Cheers,
Adam

[Peter]

So many ships of hard held beliefs have been sunk but only after recognizing the costs that hits too late at times--experience over the ages with lots of feedback can certainly help us--also more collegial chats can be quite enlightening--so thanks for the interesting highlights--peter

[Adam Steer]

Peter - Extremely well said! Thanks.