A basic rule or law of life is that there is a cost to absolutely every decision you make. It does not matter whether you make a decision to move forward or stay in the same place. Every decision has something it gives and something it takes from you. The cost is not always monetary in nature; sometimes the cost is relationship and most often it is time. There are other forms as well, however; health, pain, dreams, and character are all aspects of what a decision may require in payment. Now, before I get into this I want to assure you that while every decision has some type of cost does not mean that the cost is bad or even undesirable. When you understand this foundational wisdom in life you will gain great freedom to feel in control of your life.
Every decision has a cost. Most decisions have multiple ways you can pay. An example is food. You can pay the cost of a meal with money or you can pay the cost with time and energy harnessing the power of sun, water, and nutrients and then process raw materials and various ingredients combining these materials in order to make a meal yourself. The choice is yours! Isn’t that freeing? You have a choice of how to make a payment for everything you have! Here’s another example that includes food: Eating certain foods or not eating certain foods both have costs. If you choose to eat certain foods (candy and processed sugar and corn syrup) you will open your body to being susceptible to sickness. If you choose not to eat certain foods (citrus fruits are an example especially with vitamin C) you also may be opening yourself to the possibility of illness such as scurvy. The cost of eating sugar could be frequent colds. The cost of not ingesting vitamin C could be scurvy.
It is extremely important in life to begin thinking this way. The cost of sleeping late is often a lack of productivity and clear thinking in the morning. The cost of getting up early can be less productivity in the evening. The cost of watching TV for large portions of time can be atrophy of certain parts of your brain. The cost of too much exercise can be time, energy, and potential injury. The cost of not moving or exercising is most probably injury and back pain. The cost of 85 hour work weeks is a lack of connecting with your family. I hope these examples are clear.
There is a cost that I am very aware of in my job. For a client to hire me to coach them for 6 months there are a number of costs. The biggest cost is a dedication of time and energy to self improvement and getting to know yourself which includes the fear of finding out something in yourself that you don’t want to see. Another cost is the money spent on coaching and mentorship. These are costs that most of my clients and potential clients are aware of to some degree (though most focus on the price in dollars and don’t take into account how much time and energy are involved to change their life and get to know themselves so they are able to realize their goals). There is another cost that some of my clients do not realize… The cost of not taking the time, energy, and money to invest in themselves so they can free up all three of those resources for the rest of their lives. The cost of not learning about yourself and facing some of your fears is to remain stuck where you are. Sometimes there are other costs of not growing as well. For example, I just spoke with a friend who told me the financial cost of one of his first coaches was very large (around $40,000). Within the year of this coaching period my friend gained $1,000,000 in real estate property value. So, you could say that the cost of his coaching was high, but if he had not paid the money his cost of NOT coaching was much higher (a loss of $1,000,000).
This last example is also a great example of how making a decision has a cost and how not making a decision has a cost. When you choose not to do something it is a decision. I’ve met many people who ‘struggle to make a decision’. This is a crazy statement in some ways because not one person on the planet struggles to make decisions. Everyone is always making decisions to either do or not to do. Now, I admit that some people struggle to make decisions to move forward in some way, but the decision they do not struggle to make is to stay in the same place they currently are in. You know what I’m going to say, right? There is a cost to staying stagnant in life. The advantage is that it can seem to feel comforting because it is what you already know. The cost is that you may pay better comfort in the future or more satisfying relationships in order to feel more comfortable now. I don’t believe either decision is ‘right or wrong’ or ‘good or bad’.
Today’s post isn’t about telling you what to do or how to do it. My desire is to simply provide the freedom for you to make the decision that best fits what you want in life. Every day I make the decision not to do many things. I also make many decisions daily. To do other things. I believe I once heard Steve Jobs say that the most difficult part of having a great company like Apple is that he must say ‘no’ to many good things in order to fully support the few best things. There is I so much wisdom in that statement. Please take the time to read it again. Every day make it your focus to say ‘no’ to anything and everything that doesn’t lead you closer to you goal so that you will always have the time, energy, and money to say ‘yes’ to the things that take you straight to your dreams.
Have a fantastic day!
