Ep887 Super Taxed

Have you ever stayed in a job, a relationship, or a creative project for six months longer than you should have?

We’re often told that "winners never quit," but blindly staying the course can be the most expensive choice you ever make. In this episode, we pull back the curtain on the Invisible Tax—the heavy cost you pay in time, energy, and future potential when you refuse to pivot.

We break down the psychology behind why we get stuck (hello, Sunk Cost Fallacy) and give you a practical diagnostic checklist to figure out if you're being patient or just paralyzed by fear. Finally, you’ll get our 3-step Micro-Pivot Framework to help you change directions smoothly, safely, and without blowing up your life.

Transcript

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Yo, it's your main man Rahim Rossier. Have you ever stayed at a job too long, in a relationship too long, in the wrong lane too long? You feel me? Just done the wrong thing for too long, man. In my world, I call it super tax. You dig? You've been super taxed. Like you making whatever you're not doing, you adding tax, interest, all that extra stuff, unneeded stuff on top of what you had to do in the first place, man. You feel me? Like you knew something wasn't working, but you feel like changing directions was too risky. It was too exhausting. It was too loud. You feel me? You stayed the course telling yourself, I'm fine. You feel me? I'm not making a mistake. I'm just what? Playing it safe. You feel like you was playing it safe. You feel me? Like, here's the brutal truth, though, that no one's talked about, man. Staying the course is still a choice, right? Doing something that you know is not right is still a choice, and it's often the most expensive choice you can make. Once you know something's not right and you keep on doing, guess what you're doing? You making that choice super high. You feel me? Like in economics, this is a core concept called the opportunity cost, right? The loss of potential gain from other alternatives when you can't, when one alternative is not chosen, right? When you don't choose something, you still choose something, right? You refuse to pivot, so you are actively paying a hidden tax. You feel me? You actively paying that hidden fee. You are paying with your time, your energy, and your future potential, man. In today's video, man, I'm gonna break down the exact cost of non-changing directions and the three-step frameworks on how to fix it, right? Like this week I've been talking about like just changing directions. We're gonna change directions. If you can't change directions, you can't really go nowhere. If you can't change directions, you really, you like not even it's like your car not even being to go left and right, you don't can go straight. You're gonna eventually hit some, right? You're gonna eventually run into a wall because your car studied fucking going straight and you trying to turn left. You trying to turn right. You're gonna have to cut your car off from just what? Wait till you get it fixed, right? So, today's man video is gonna go off that vid, man. The first part of this man is gonna be what? The sunken cost, right? The sunken cost faculty. This is when like the biggest reason we don't change our racing is because like we have a tendency to go through an endeavor that we invested so much time into. You feel me? Our effort into whether it's a current um event or something that really outweighs us, but it don't don't benefit us no more, right? Like we've been doing this, the the current cost outweigh the benefits. Like, we doing this shit for nothing at this point. You feel me? We working for free. We working just for really to do nothing, to just be able to breathe. You feel me? Like you really are working for nothing, right? Like this is a think about it like this. You buy a ticket to a terrible three-hour movie, right? You'll go in that motherfucking movie bad as fuck, but you say I spent my $15, so I'm finna sit in this motherfucker. Fuck that. You feel me? You done watch the hour in. You know, this motherfucker got two, three more hours left, and you still finna sit there. You feel me? You feel like you losing your money, but now you really making yourself more miserable. You feel me? You got now, you paying for two hours of miserable, you feel me? Like, of just being straight up, like, damn, I hate I even chose. You feel me? Like, you allowing yourself to watch this thing that you know you don't even want to be around. It's like you buying a burger and you biting into it, like, man, I don't need this shit. Throwing it out the window. You're not throwing a dollar out the window, you are throwing bad health out the window. You dig like that's how you gotta look at shit. Like, you can't just think like, man, I ate this shit. Man, I gotta bought this food. Oh, I gotta eat it. Oh, I did this, oh I gotta, oh, I gotta go ahead and follow through with it. Oh, I've been here five years, I might as well do two years, I might as well stay the next year. So you're gonna keep on staying in a bad situation that's so-called good for you, but you don't got no elevation point, you don't got no point where you going up, you feel me, and you notice and you choose to stay in that, stay in that lane, stay in that path, you feel me? Until you were older, then you wonder why you feel this way, look this way, you know, you do things this way. All those years you didn't work your brain, all those years you didn't change direction, so your brain just got scrunk in certain areas. You feel me? Now you wonder why you got Alzheimer's. Now you wonder why you feel a certain way. And because you what stays on the course too fucking long. Like if they say you stay on the train, the longer you stay on the train, the longer it's gonna take to get back home. Like, for real, like you gotta get off shit. Like when you apply this to your life, the cost of compound is dramatically different. Right? The emotional cost, chronic stress, low grade resentment, and exhausted mental loop of whatever. You feel me? Like, you know, if you just change some shit up, you it's life is too damn long. People be like, life is short, life is long. You got a lot of damn years to go through. If you taking care of yourself and you just working, staying out the way, you're gonna be here alone in a long, miserable fucking life. You might as well be doing what the fuck you want to do. You feel me? Like when you take that emotional toll on yourself every day, just getting up, not being happy, not doing what you want to do, man. It it screes you out in points that you don't even know. When you're trying to impress certain people all the time, it screes you out in in places in your mind that you wouldn't even realize. You fight, you feel me? So think about that, you feel me? And this is another one. The career cost, staying in a dead end role means you are missing out on the compounded interest of skills you could be learning elsewhere. You feel me? You knowing that this role is not liable and reliable for you to grow. You know this role is nowhere for you to even elevate. You know, before they elevate you in this role, you will you you're gonna be dead and old. You feel me? So you gotta know your your um your traits and what you're trying to do with yourself, right? And once you know what you're trying to do with yourself, you you more likely you ain't finna fall for the trap of what not doing nothing, you feel me, or staying on this cap on on this thing too long. Like, we gotta change that race. And then the next one is, man, the time cost. Like, the time cost is only a resource with a hundred percent hard ceiling. You cannot earn more of it. You feel me? That shit is what it is. It's like gas. Nigga, the price is what the price says. Nigga, that's what it is for a gallon. You understand me? So you gotta think about this. Is this worth all my damn time? No, if it's not, let's go. Let's let's get to the next thing. Let's skip to the next damn phase of life. Like, we can't keep staying in this phase if it's not worth our time. We look at this shit. I'm just gonna stay here till till when. You feel me? We're gonna talk about the morning and how to keep using your energy, but right now we're talking about like the cost of this shit. You know, this shit is costing. You I talked about this shit last week, the cost of uh it's the cost is to everything. Everything is uh it's the payments to it. Invisible payments, physical payments, feel me, like electronic payments, they they they payments. You gotta pay some type of way. You feel me? And this section is we're gonna talk about this man how to diagnose it. Like, how to diagnose this if you stuck, you feel me? Like that, like so how do you know if you are deliberately being patient or you just being terrified of pivoting, you right? Ask yourself these three questions, right? Like, if you wanna know, you okay, I'm being patient. I got some shit I'm working towards. Or do you want to know, okay, I'm terrified. Like, um, do you feel me? You want to know, like, man, I'm not just like I'm scared of hell, no, I'm not finna, no, I'm not doing no new job. These folks are cool. I like these people up here. Uh-uh, fucking, I ain't gonna make no money, but I don't I'm gonna be here stressed out, stressed out when I go home. You feel me? Ain't got no money. Number one, I am growing or am I just busy? Friction. Friction and hard work are normal when you are building something. But if you are putting 60 hours of work and your skills, happiness, and bank account having moved in a year, you on Claminate Mountain, you're on the treadmill. If you got the same amount of money you had last year, you plan. You feel me? You're on the treadmill. You you are not moving anywhere, you just walking. Just walking over and over. You went to work 152 damn weeks. And every week, you probably missed one fucking week. You went to every damn week of this year, and you haven't gone anywhere. You haven't built any knowledge, you haven't built any skill, you haven't built your bank account still on zero. You feel me? That means you just what? You just busy. You just busy. You just do a lot of working, a lot of working and a lot of spending, a lot of working, spending, working, spending, working, spending. Just think about your treadmill and how long you're gonna be on there. How long do you want to walk? You know how people be telling me, you run too much. You you you always working out. You do too, man. No, I don't do half of the shit the niggas who work in the gym do. Then wait, wait, wait till I get me a gym job. Then y'all say that. But right now, I just I work out every day just because I run every day. Just because this is what I like to do. It makes me feel better, it makes me think better, right? So when I'm when I know I'm on, it's I look at life the same way. When I know I'm doing something over and over, and this is a treadmill um method. Oh, hell no. What do I need to do to get off this one? How much did it hit? Oh, I make that in what, a week or two? Probably less than a week if I work hard enough. Fuck that. Get me off this treadmill. You feel me? Like, you gotta get off certain treadmills. You gotta get off certain things. You can't be on the same treadmill, going the same rate forever. You gonna what? Hit a wall because you're not changing directions. You feel me? Your body gonna shut down in the other areas. You've been walking on that same damn thing, the same way, the same exercise. Now your body, what? The other shit that went down. You your legs little in the motherfucker, not holding your body up no more. You done focused too much on the upper body. You forgot about your legs. You feel me? Gotta even shit out. Leg days, and though some people do leg day, um that I do all days, every day. Like, we not doing, we're not missing no body parts around here. So the thing, the second thing is, man, if I started from scratch today, would I choose this path? Like, look at your current project, right? Or major commitment. If I vanished tomorrow, you had a clean slate, but you actually fight to get it back. If the answer is no, you are holding on, you are holding on to it out of habit. You feel me? If you wouldn't do this shit, if you started from scratch, say shit, if I started over tomorrow, yeah yeah, I'm gonna start right here. Hell no, no, I'm not no. You starting with experience now. You're not starting over. You gotta think about this shit now. You're not starting over, you starting with experience, so you should know how to move and maneuver and go find you the correct job, the correct placement. You feel me? You can be able to go do things different now because that's how you're feeling, that's how you live in that, because you didn't change up how you think. You feel me? If you started from scratch, would you choose this path? Hell no. I'm choosing different paths. Okay, I need to be what doing something different. I need to be doing something that's gonna make me more um viable to the market. You dig? And the next thing is the next question is what am I sacrificing by saying yes to this? Every time you say yes to staying on the current path, you are saying a passive no to every other opportunity in the world, in the world, right? So if this path is something that, okay, if I I sit here and I know I can be using my skills elsewhere, you wasting your time. You feel me? You wasting your time because you know the smarter version of you should not be here. You feel me? You know the best version of yourself is is not gonna be found over here. You feel me? You know you're weakening your brain cells working here. You feel me? If you can't, if you gotta go to work and and and you gotta think doing work in out of work, you got time to do a lot of shit at work. You know what it's time to go. You feel me? It's time to go get a real fucking job. It's time to go do the real thing. It's time to get myself in real action of the thing I need to be pursuing. And all you gotta do is what? Start. Start. Y'all know I talk about this shit all day. Start, let's go. You feel me? In this section three, right? We're gonna talk about um the pivot framework, right? If you realize you need to change directions, the worst thing you can do is make a chaotic, relentless leap without a plan. You feel me? You don't burn this house down, you build a bridge. You feel me? You don't just tear everything down before, nah, okay, you got some shit okay. This here can be this is gonna be gone. If you can eliminate it, eliminate it. But if you can't, don't just tear it down, you feel me? Like when you want to fix something, when you want to run a low-stakes experiment, man, minimize the risk. Don't quit your day job tomorrow. If you went to change, once you change injuries, take a weekend course or a freelance work hours for five hours a week. Test the water to make sure you actually like the reality of a new direction. Like, shit, take your break. I need a little break. I'm gonna be back in about a month. You feel me? You've been up so long. Let's let me go ahead and get my little vacation time. Let me see what the else the fuck I could be doing. You feel me? What else spike you know, spike my interest? Like, what else turned me into, you know, just happy. I don't think about the time when I'm there. You feel me? Like, what do that? Let's think about that. Let's let like let's get our stress level low. Like, you get your stress level low, like you, it's like you're getting a bunch of money then. Like, shit ain't costing you no more. Now you getting paper because you your stress has gone down. You feel me? Your stress levels is everything. Your stress level, people die from being stressed the fuck out. Heart attacks, shit. Man, aneurysms, it's all type of shit just because they stretch the fuck out. So let's get that right. You feel me? Like, give your current situation a strict date. Tell yourself if XYZ doesn't improve in 90 days, I'm executing my exit plan. This prevents you from what drifting off for the next three years. We talked about that yesterday. Like, you fuck around and not do some shit, you're gonna be not doing it forever. You're gonna be just all over the place forever. And you done forgot about what you're supposed to be doing because you study drifting off because you ain't give yourself no deadline. So that's why everything need to be within the 90 days. That's how I try to look at 90 days for real. Every 90 days is a year, and audit your budget, man. Cut the sunken costs, write down exactly what you are afraid of losing if you change the race and if it's status, is it title, is it approval of people who don't like this? Acknowledge the loss, except the the pastime spent was a lesson, not a prison sentence, and move forward. Like you ain't gotta scratch over some shit that you've been there, nigga. I did that before. I'm glad you're doing it now. You feel me? I'm glad this, I'm glad this was working for you. You feel me? So you look at it like that. Don't be don't be getting pissed off because something something is um is over with now. Nah, let's go ahead and make something now. Let's go ahead and make it better from where we stand, right? And this is this is the outro, right? This is like what we gonna say. This is what which I want y'all to remember, man. Changing direction is terrifying, and it requires the to admit that the old path didn't work. You feel me? Like, just admit this shit. Like, yeah, no, that shit ain't work. Me going to school and going to school for that did not work for me. Like, me going to school for um business administration and uh that's my foyer, I don't think it only way it works for me if I stay at a job long enough. You feel me? And I don't want to stay at a job long enough in that type of sense right now, in this point of my life right now. You feel me? I do that shit when I'm if I have to, when I'm, you know, when I'm such and such age. But I know me admitting my mistakes costs you your pride and denying the cost, it costs you your future, you feel me? So I know, okay, look, that ain't it's still good to have degrees. You feel me? I still got my IT degree, I still got my business administration degree, right? So me having those, it still can come in handy. But right now, okay, I need I need to lump. So I need to what slump myself into a job that's pays that pays a certain amount of hours, is that the oil rig, is that me got that me going on the on the boat or whatever. I gotta go ahead and make that make that charge so I can build up quicker. You feel me? Now that I got a different mindset on money and how it comes and what people do, okay. This is how this is how I change, you feel me? And in this video, man, I just wanted to show y'all that you can change direction, you can feel a different way. You feel me? You can do something that's more um loving that if you want to. You feel me? You can feel a different way. So you ain't gotta be on the same path forever. You can change it up as soon as you get ready. You can make it a different, different way as soon as you get ready, but you gotta be willing to change it. You gotta be willing to make it the way you want it. You feel me? So this video helped y'all, man. Y'all like, comment, subscribe, start changing directions today. Like, make that a make that a plan. Like, I'm gonna I'm I'm changing directions right now. Like, I'm I'm through with this type of thing. You know, whatever it is, if you gotta change directions, change it. If you ain't feeling it, you ain't fucking with it, goodbye. You feel me?