People will choose unhappiness over uncertainty. — Tim Ferriss

People will choose unhappiness over uncertainty.

Author: Tim Ferriss

Insight: We often think of people as running away from pain, but the truth is more complicated: we'll actually stick with misery if it's familiar. That failing job, the relationship that drains you, the habit that makes you feel worse about yourself — there's a strange comfort in knowing exactly what you're getting. At least you understand the rules, even if those rules make you suffer. This explains why people stay in situations they complain about constantly. Change requires stepping into fog. You don't know if the new job will work out, if leaving will hurt worse before it gets better, or if you're making a huge mistake. That uncertainty creates anxiety that often feels sharper than the dull ache of your current situation. So you choose the devil you know. The counterintuitive part? Recognizing this pattern is the first crack in it. Once you see that you're choosing unhappiness for the comfort of certainty, you can ask yourself a harder question: Is the certainty actually worth what it's costing me? Sometimes the answer is yes. But often, we realize we've been using "at least I know what this is" as a really expensive excuse.

Source: The 4-Hour Workweek