Sometimes your life changes the moment you stop negotiating with what already needs to end.

There is often a long stretch of negotiating with something you already know is finished: adjusting, hoping, giving it more time, finding new arrangements that might make it workable. The negotiation can go on for years. Things frequently change quickly once it stops, which is why people so often say afterwards that they wish they had acted sooner. The knowing usually predates the acting by a long way.

Ask what you already know needs to end and what the negotiation is currently costing you. You do not have to act today. It helps just to stop pretending the question is still open.