In economics and finance, the term "sunk cost" refers to a cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered. 

I can see you scratching your head and asking yourself, "Why is Lisa talking about economic terms?" Well, I've worked with enough clients from a broad spectrum of disciplines to see this concept playing out in life. Let me give you a few examples,

• The lawyer who has dreamed of practicing law since he was a child only to find that reality didn't live up to the dream. He's miserable but continues to focus on the time and expense it took him to become a lawyer as his reason for staying with it.
• The COO of the family business who has never been passionate about the work but feels the weight of her family's expectations for her to carry on the family legacy.
• The primary breadwinner in the family who wants nothing more than to pursue the passions they'd long since cast aside having been told by well-meaning adults in their life that these were "childish dreams."

We cannot reverse time. We can't go back to that pivotal decision that set us in motion toward this moment. Those events have occurred and cannot be rewritten (my definition of sunk costs).

But, we can choose differently now.

We can choose to take all that we have learned - about ourselves, about our likes and dislikes, about our dreams and passions, about our skills and talents - and chart a course toward greater alignment and fulfillment.

What sunk cost have you been clinging to?

-Lisa