How Much is It Costing You?

When I was first asked this question, my first thought, perhaps like most people, was financially-related, as that is how we instinctively define cost in society. And this is of course, a vital element that may prevent you from moving forward. Maybe you don’t have the money to pack up and move to a new country, nor buy the house you have always wanted. And perhaps that can hold us back from being where we want to be. But money aside, what is it costing you each day not taking steps to move you forward to where you want to be?

For example, if you have a job that you don’t necessarily hate, but it hasn’t exactly been exciting or even interesting for a long time, what is it costing you every day you are there living that life, when you could be living the life you want, being passionate about your work, doing a job that you find exciting? Fast forward to your rocking chair at 85 years old. What would you like to look back on? A life of things you did when some worked and some didn’t, but you had a wonderful experience? Or one in which you stayed in the same place where you were not happy, but never quite got round to doing what you wanted for a million different reasons?

There are of course practical elements in our lives which can stop us from being who we want to be to some degree, but if only for a moment, what could happen if we gave ourselves the permission to consider an alternative situation where you have achieved your dream? What would it look like? How would it feel? What would you do in this new world when you got up first thing in the morning?

Some may argue this is idealistic nonsense and to those I would say that you are of course fully entitled to your opinion, however in a world in which we are always being told that we can’t do things, shouldn’t do things and mustn’t do things, how much would it cost us to actually take steps forward to where we want to be? We would not hide from the practical realities of our lives, in fact we would embrace them as once we have done this, we can then find a solution. There could of course still be a compromise or ‘cost’, but wouldn’t we at least be heading in the direction that we have chosen for ourselves?

Wouldn’t that be a price worth paying?