Hat Tip: Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach
Perspective is a tool...pretty much like everything else we use. And as a tool it can be used effectively or ineffectively.
There's a saying, "The tool for the job." Different jobs often require different tools.
In working with entrepreneurs, I've found the COST perspective is most often effective when trying to move away from something. You've already decided it's not something you want to invest time and energy into. By looking at a project or resource as simply a cost, you grease the wheels to getting rid of it.
The problem is when you only use this perspective, when it's your default perspective. We've been finding the INVESTMENT perspective is usually a better starting part to evaluating a project or any type of expenditure. With investment you are looking at the return, what you get out of what you're putting in. From this perspective you can better evaluate.
BATTLE or ALLY
If you default to a cost perspective you've set yourself up to see everything as a battle. Costs are losses. You want to reduce all losses. You fight against losses. The problem is now you look at everything as a loss in money and time. You cannot effectively build a business by trying not to lose.
If you default to an investment perspective you set yourself up to evaluate if things are worth it for you. Anything that exists has some use. The question isn't for you to evaluate the objective use of a thing - it's for you to see how it works for you in what you want done.
So what?
Try using the cost perspective AFTER you've decided not to do something. Especially when you're a little wishy washy. It really helps to solidify the commitment you've made to NOT doing.