Putting Your Toys Away
Sometimes you have to put away some of your toys in order to play with some news ones. In some cases you may even need to sell, trade, or donate some of your old toys just so you can make some room in your toybox for the new toys you want to play with. I have advised people in the past to play with all the toys (but you can’t play with them all of the toys all at the same time). And by “toys” I mean all of your projects, whether they are part of your professional employment or pieces of your side hustle.
Some toys need to go back into your toybox — some toys need to go to a new home.
Much like the Marie Kondo book “The Life-Changing Magic of Tidy Up“, you must take a look at each of your individual toys (you projects) and decide whether or not they still bring you joy.
But what if you’ve invested in years of playing with this toy?
Does it make sense to give it away after all this time?
Seth Godin has written extensively on the subject of sunk costs and why you should ignore them. Seth says it doesn’t matter how much time or money or effort you sunk into a project — if the project no longer makes sense in financial terms or in your greater scheme of personal development, then it has to go.
I’m facing a similar dilemma with one of my favorite toys
At the conclusion of this year, I will have invested six years of producing a tiny daily piece of content which has become known as Big Yellow Sticky.
- I enjoy playing with this toy (drawing my daily sticky note)
- My social media followers say they enjoy the daily sticky note and the insight, advice, and humor it provides
- But few people have actually contributed dollars to support the content creation
It might be time for me to put away this toy
How about you?
What project have you been dragging along behind you for years that is holding you back from finding an interesting new toy to play with?
