When the sunken cost fallacy hits

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Do you ever have those moments where you know you’re doing something that probably isn’t beneficial that you could easily change but you just don’t?

Yesterday I was on the rowing machine, and I noticed a slight pain on the back of my ankle, the kind that comes from chafing. I adjusted the foot rest accordingly thinking that was what was wrong, but I still noticed the pain after a few more strokes.

Mistakenly fooling myself that I had solved the problem, and wanting to get a good time on the machine, I kept on going. If I had stopped again there and adjusted my sock, which was the real problem, I would have been able to use the machine this morning without worrying about popping the huge blister on my ankle.

In the end my time was slow (well not too slow), and I came out with a blister in just the right spot that means I can’t do the exercise until it calms down.

I try to make it as easy as possible to just get on the machine and start rowing. I make sure there is a towel ready, and even have an old pair of shoes now specifically for the machine, not to mention a set of Bluetooth headphones that live there. With all this preparation, you’d think I would be extra careful, but alas I wasn’t yesterday, even though it would have been a very simple fix.

Next time this happens, I’ll be sure to take stock, and fix the problem before it exacerbates.

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Sakata City, Yamagata, Japan 

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