Professional poker players know that continuing to play until they win—however they define that win—is often a losing strategy. Expert players abandon about 80% of their hands in the popular variant, Texas Hold ’em, for example, while amateurs stick with their starting cards more than half the time. Expertise and experience help the pros make a more rational decision once they see the kind of red flag that indicates it’s time to fold. In fact, so-called “optimal quitting” might be the most important skill separating great players from amateurs: Without the option to abandon a hand, poker wouldn’t be a game of skill.

How can we become more like those professional players when it comes to decisions like when to sell an investment, abandon an innovation, or let an underperforming worker go? It turns out that our most formidable obstacles are the goals we set, and how we set them. To start, the mere fact of having a goal can cause “escalation of commitment,” where you end up sticking with it even though it’s no longer the best way to achieve your desired outcome.

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