I was rather struck by how Seth Godin reframes sunk cost as a gift from your past self to the present self. A gift from a younger Dan to an older Dan. I’d never considered such an application before.

Like any gift, you don’t have to use it.

One characteristic of a good gift is something the recipient wouldn’t have gotten for themselves but has wanted.

Such are the gifts from my past. The younger Dan made decisions I might’ve not made given what I know now but I would still be curious about the outcome. The gift is that now I know. All thanks to the younger self making the decision for me.

It is up to me on how I wish to use this information. This could be a designation I now have, a university degree that gives credibility, how to lift 4x one’s bodyweight, or the many countless mistakes on the way here.

The greatest danger of putting weight to sunk costs is the attitude of thinking I don’t have a choice in the present because of choices made in the past. The fallacy part being that I indeed do have a choice.

Just like a gifted hoodie can be donated because it no longer is in style instead of limiting my wardrobe, the experiences I’ve had need not limit my future trajectory. Rather, they could be repurposed for completely different use cases.

It’s up to the present self to be creative with the gifts I’ve received. To use them as assets rather than things that take up storage space or unhelpful limitations.