Come to terms with your decision
As you let your dream go, you might be agonising over whether you’re making a mistake. ‘There’s no good answer, there’s no formula’ for deciding whether to plough on or give up, says Wrosch. However, he recommends bearing in mind a phenomenon known as ‘goal shielding’ – when we’re highly focused on a particular dream or ambition, we tend to filter out inconvenient information that might imperil the project. ‘Motivational psychologists call it an “implemental mindset”,’ says Wrosch. ‘If you cross the Rubicon, you focus on what you want to achieve, and you don’t have that balance [in how you process the situation] any more.’ For that reason, he says most us are, if anything, probably more at risk of stubbornly pursuing a dream for too long than giving up too early.