Colm O'Regan: My New Year's resolution is to quit while I'm ahead

Colm O'Regan explains the Sunk Cost Fallacy and wonders why we're obsessed with completion

Roger Kenny Photography Actor Head Shots www.rogerkenny.ie

A New Year’s Resolution. Sure you haven’t finished the OLD Year’s one yet. Isn’t that kind of what we say to children as they gambol blissfully through life? Gadding from one task to another. The trail of things on the floor behind them telling both the direction of travel and what they were doing when they changed their mind and did something else. They don’t appear to give a shite about unfinishedness, and I envy that. They have no hang ups about just ‘doing a different thing.’

Whereas we adults are often obsessed with completion. That’s that closed off now. Boxed off. We have a suite of snarky phrases and side-eye for those who don’t complete: “oh shur that didn’t last” / “He gave that up” / “She can’t stick at anything.” / “That went nowhere.” / “A pure waster.”