How to fight for your life, Part 2

What we have can keep us from what we want.

(If you haven’t read Part 1, read it here.)

Photo by Hipster Mum on Unsplash

Sometimes in life, you have to fight for more than what you have. A better job. A better partner. Better friends.

In these kinds of “fights”, we stand to win, but we also stand to lose. A better job means losing the job you have. A better partner means losing the person you’re with. Better friends means losing the friends you’ve got.

These “fights” are tough decisions. They’re hard because they require us to weigh the value of what we already have against the value of what we could possibly get. And we humans aren’t naturally designed to do this well. Too often, we hang onto what we have, even when it’s not great, simply because we have it. Which holds us back from the life we really want.

We value the sure thing.

According to behavioral economics research, humans tend to prefer what’s certain over what’s probable. We don’t like options that come with chances attached, even if they’re the same as or better than opt…