How to Know When Persistence Is No Longer Worth It

How do you know when persistence is no longer worth it? In episode #1211 of The BIGG Success Show, learn how to decide whether to keep going, change course, or invest your resources elsewhere.

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Imagine you’ve spent years building something.

A business. A career. A project. Maybe a goal you’ve sacrificed a lot to pursue.

But lately, something has changed. Progress has slowed. The opportunity doesn’t look as promising.

Or maybe you’ve changed, and what once mattered deeply doesn’t fit the life you want now.

Then a familiar thought starts creeping in: Look at everything you’ve already put into it. All the time. All the money. All the effort.

Those are your sunk costs. And they can make it surprisingly hard to decide what to do next.

If you’ve invested five years, stopping can feel like wasting five years. If you’ve invested $50,000, changing direction can mean facing a painful possibility: That money may be gone.

So you keep going. Sometimes that persistence pays off. But sometimes one of your greatest strengths – your determination to keep going – keeps you investing in something that no longer makes sense.

Have We Been Misled About Being Persistent?

We hear a lot about the importance of persistence. Don’t give up. Stay the course. Finish what you start.

That’s good advice when the goal still matters and there’s a reasonable path forward.

But personal entrepreneurs also need to know when their resources could create more value somewhere else.

In this episode we’ll explore: three moves that can help you decide what deserves your continued persistence:

Reassess — why what you’ve already invested can distort what you should do next
Release — how to stay committed to what matters without becoming trapped by one route
Reallocate — how to decide whether your resources could create a better return somewhere else

REASSESS: Make the next decision based on the future

Here’s what makes this so tricky: the more you’ve already invested, the harder it can be to evaluate what you should do next.

There’s actually a name for this tendency: the sunk-cost effect.

Researchers, Hal Arkes and Catherine Blumer found that people tend to keep investing in something because they’ve already invested money, effort, or time in it.

But what you’ve already spent is gone. You can’t recover yesterday’s investment by putting more into something today.

The decision in front of you is simpler: From this point forward, is this the best use of the next $25,000?
Apply the same thinking to your time. “I’ve already spent three years on this.” Those three years are gone whether you continue or stop. What matters now is whether this deserves year four.

So periodically give long-standing commitments a fresh evaluation. “Knowing what you know today, would you choose this again?”

If the answer is “No”, don’t automatically quit. Treat it as a signal that something deserves a closer look. Your future shouldn’t have to keep funding a decision simply because your past did. (We talk about this more in episode 1202: How to Know What Opportunities to Say No To.)

RELEASE: Stay loyal to what matters, not one particular route

Sometimes the destination still matters, but the road you’re on isn’t getting you there. Think about driving somewhere and discovering the road ahead is closed. You don’t sit there saying, “But I committed to this road.” You find another route.

Yet with our biggest goals, we often become attached to the method.

A business owner wants financial independence, so they keep pushing a business model that no longer works.
A professional wants meaningful work, so they stay in a career that hasn’t fit for years.

The bigger goal may still be right. The current vehicle may have run its course.

And research suggests there’s real value in being flexible about how we pursue our goals. A large analysis published in Nature Human Behaviour looked at more than 200 studies on goal adjustment.

One of the most useful insights for us is this: Letting go can create space. Choosing what comes next gives that space a purpose.

That’s why it helps to step back and look at what you’re ultimately trying to accomplish.

Does this business, job, project, or strategy still move you toward the personal, professional, and financial goals that matter most to you?

That’s one of the reasons we created our Life Map Course. It gives you a bigger picture to evaluate individual decisions against.

When one path stops moving you toward the life you want, you can change the path without abandoning what you ultimately want to achieve.

REALLOCATE: Consider what persistence is preventing

Here’s the question we often miss: What could these resources create somewhere else?
Every commitment consumes something. Time. Money. Energy. Attention. Opportunity.

Suppose a long-running project takes ten hours a week. It still produces some value, so stopping feels wasteful. But that’s roughly 500 hours a year.

What might 500 hours create if you redirected them toward a more promising business, a valuable new skill, your health, important relationships, or another goal that matters more now?

That’s the hidden cost of persistence. The standard shouldn’t simply be whether something still produces some return. Consider whether it still represents a good use of your limited resources compared with your alternatives.

Of course, don’t turn every setback into a reason to quit. Almost anything worthwhile includes slow periods, setbacks, and uncertainty.

Look at the evidence. Is there still a credible path forward? Have the assumptions changed? Does the outcome still matter? Are you continuing because of future potential – or mostly because of past investment?

And remember: ending something doesn’t erase its value.

– A business that didn’t work may have taught you how to sell.
– A career you leave may have developed skills you’ll use for decades.
– A goal you outgrow may have been exactly the right goal at an earlier point in your life.

You can keep the return you’ve already earned without continuing the investment forever.

BIGG Assignment

Do a 12-Month Trade Test.

Choose one long-standing commitment you’ve been unsure about. Now imagine two versions of the next 12 months.

– In Future A, you continue investing in it.
– In Future B, you stop or significantly reduce it and redirect those resources toward your best alternative.

Write down what each future could reasonably produce in four areas: Time. Money. Energy. Opportunity.

Then compare them. Don’t include what you’ve already spent. That’s history. Focus entirely on what happens from today forward.

You may discover that continuing is absolutely worth it. Great. Your persistence is now a fresh decision.

Or you may realize that your next opportunity has been waiting for resources that your old commitment is still consuming.

Either way, you’ve made a more intentional choice.

BIGG Takeaway

Persistence creates success when you’re persistent about what matters – not merely what you’ve already started. Your past deserves respect. But your future deserves resources. They’re required for BIGG success!

when you’re clear about the life you want to create, it becomes much easier to decide which commitments deserve more of those resources. Join our newsletter at for more practical ideas to help you create the life you want.

Next time: We’ve talked about knowing when to change course. But how do you know when your reasons for holding back are good judgment—or fear? That’s next on BIGG Success.

Be sure to follow or subscribe to The BIGG Success Show so you don’t miss it.

Here’s to your BIGG success!

George “The Professor” & Mary-Lynn

Co-Founders, BIGG Success