In my first People Tools book (all three are available on Amazon) I presented my thoughts on how to make a good choice despite having incurred a “Sunk Cost.”  Recently, I had to remember this People Tool myself, and I thought that maybe we could all use a reminder.

A “Sunk Cost” is the resource (time or money) you have already put into a project and can’t recover. The money or time are gone, never to return.  This Tool advises us to ignore that “Sunk Cost” when we make a decision. We all have a tendency to follow through when we have previously invested in the outcome – but maybe that’s not always the best choice.

For example, I’ve purchased many movie tickets in my life.  If Daveen and I don’t enjoy the movie, we leave.  Why should we invest more time?  A movie ticket is an option, not an obligation, and despite the fact that we paid for the ticket, we do not have to finish seeing the movie.

Two years ago I cancelled a flight on Jet Blue. To use my $600 credit I had to rebook last December.  I reserved an August round trip flight to Bozeman, Montana, an 82 mile drive from the West entrance to Yellowstone.  I thought Daveen and I could enjoy a few days inside the National Park and use my credit.

When I tried to reserve overnight accommodations at Yellowstone, however, they were completely sold out for both July and August.  As an alternate, I made reservations at the Marriott hotel in Bozeman and arranged to rent a car. The hotel and the car were expensive.

After agonizing for a week about what to do, I finally realized I was planning to spend more than $5,000 to protect a $600 credit. Despite my own good advice from People Tools, I was trying to “save” my Sunk Cost by spending a lot more. That made no sense, especially for a trip that Daveen and I did not really look forward to.

I cancelled the reservations.  I’m sure we’ll enjoy ourselves just as much at home, with no additional cost.

“Sunk Cost.”

This People Tool can save you time and money, and can help you to reach a better decision.

Alan

“Spring has sprung, the grass has riz, I wonder where the flowers is.”

Before he died in May, 2019 at the age of 104, my dad recited this little poem to me every spring. For me spring has always been a time of renewal, even in Los Angeles where no one has ever needed a snow shovel.  Although, I do remember that day in the early 1950s when an inch of snow covered the ground one January morning. Sadly, it all melted while I was taking my piano lesson – so I never got the chance to play in it.

This year I’m seeing a lot of new green buds pushing into the sunlight, but I’m still waiting for many of the flowers to bloom.

Hopefully, along with winter, the pandemic is on its way out in most areas of the country, especially as we are able to spend more time outdoors and more people get vaccinated.  Airlines are reporting advance reservations in almost pre-pandemic numbers, and when I recently tried to make reservations at Yellowstone for this summer, the facilities were already fully booked for July and August.

I’m looking forward to a productive year, with special thanks to my dad, who taught me how to garden, and who brought poetry, wisdom, and so many flowers into my life.

As a friend wrote in signing my high school yearbook, “Yours until the Hollywood Bowl has soup.”

Love,

Alan

When I was very young I decided that the more I used my body the sooner it would wear out.  Later, when I was in school, I learned that the shortest distance between two points was a straight line.

I concluded that I would live longer if I moved my body the absolute minimum amount I could. This may be the ultimate couch potato rationalization, but I actually lived as if the shortest distance between two points was to stay in the same place.

Exercise?  Cardio?  Hiking?  Those were activities indulged in only by foolish people who didn’t know any better.

Modern science, of course, has thoroughly discredited my original belief.  It is well established that, within limits, the more you use your body the longer it will last.  Throughout our lives we are often exposed to ideas that contradict our fixed ways of thinking, and the real question is whether or not we learn to adjust our choices.

During the past year I have made the effort to walk an average of more than three miles every day.  Through conscientious eating I have lost about ten pounds.  I find that, with most restaurants closed to inside dining, it’s easier for me to eat a healthy meal at home than it was in a restaurant.

From the time we are young, our life decisions are shaped by our beliefs, both conscious and unconscious, such as “finish everything on your plate”.  For better or for worse, we live by those decisions throughout our entire lives unless and until we change those underlying beliefs and are able to act on new decisions.

Here are three more unhelpful ideas I held onto for many years.

1. Women are always warm and considerate. Men are always angry and abrupt.
2. You don’t really need to brush your teeth.
3. Never throw anything away. That would be wasting money, and you never know when you may need it.  (To this day when Daveen shows me some possession that I haven’t seen in twenty years, and I don’t remember it at all, I still want to keep it, “Just in case.”)

We are creatures of habit – typically starting each day in the same way with a cup of coffee, or tea or whatever our morning ritual entails.

But every once in a while we might peek deeper into ourselves to discover if we can improve our situation by changing a behavior that no longer serves us, and then, maybe, we’ll take a walk, or clean out a closet, or do something new, which is more interesting and productive than just staying in one place.

Alan