Cross the sea and burn your ships
Almost 500 years ago, Hernan Cortés sailed from Cuba to the Mexican coast with a small army. Instead of briefly exploring the coast like he was initially assigned to do, he disembarked in Mexico. He was determined to explore and colonize the unexplored lands. In order to do so, he scuttled all his ships. No retreat was possible. His men knew that there was no turning back. They had to move inland and conquer the land ahead of them.
Cortés was making a bold move by understanding the psychology behind motivation, fear, and decision making. As behavioral economists have proven to us, the fact of having several alternatives makes us more unsatisfied with whatever choice we make. If we choose A over B, we partly deduct the imagined happiness coming from B, from the happiness of having chosen A. Choice doesn’t make life easier.
This effect is also related to the classical yet difficult lesson of ignoring sunk costs, which is to ignore the costs and efforts spent on your current path when deciding what to do tomorrow. This is easier said than done and it’s a bias that’s hard to fight against: Imagine you buy a product, and before you receive it you find another one that is much better and will save you money in the long run. It’s difficult to accept the loss and buy the second one, even if in the long run it’s the wise thing to do.
Rory Sutherland gives a great example during an interview of how to apply this to a daily problem. He explains how he had nonrefundable tickets for a long trip he was looking forward to, but he was sick. Instead of going and spending more money on additional traveling expenses while feeling miserable, he knew it was better to stay at home. In order to make his decision easier he simply ripped the tickets.
Rationally it’s always smart to have a backup, a safety net, or a second alternative in case you take the wrong decision. It seems like this often doesn’t apply to our minds. Cross the sea, burn your ships and don’t look back. You will make the most out of the path you chose.