An interesting Essay: Staring into the abyss as a core life skill

The author uses "staring into the abyss" to referr to the process of considering difficult questions about whether the path you are currently walking, be that your job, a project you work on, or your business strategy, is actually good/optimal.

People often remain in suboptimal positions and paths because considering the alternative is intimidating. Giving up may mean that you "wasted" months or years of your life on the wrong thing - yet persisting on the wrong path would mean wasting even more time on it. So it's better to confront such truths early.

I can definitely see some personal truth in the idea.