Before you join anything, know how you’d leave it. Exits are easier to plan from the outside.

Knowing the exit before you go in keeps you free while you are inside. Once committed, leaving gets tangled with loyalty, spent effort and whoever will be disappointed, and none of that is visible from where you stand now. Ten minutes of thinking beforehand buys a clear head later.

Before you sign up for the club, the job, the lease or the group, ask what leaving would involve. Notice and time, money, who you would have to tell. If leaving turns out to be nearly impossible, that is worth knowing before rather than after.