Treat it like you’re bailing

When we’re about to ditch something, sometimes we fix the problem that made us decide to ditch it in the first place.

• After you clean and fix up your junky old house to put it on the market, the house doesn’t seem so junky anymore.
• When you’re about to quit your stressful job, you stop caring what people think. Then it’s not so stressful.
• In the last sprint of a floundering project, the team focuses on putting a bow on things. That focus would have saved the project, had it existed all along.

Next time you’re fed up with something, treat it like you would if you were about to bail. See if that makes the bailing unnecessary.