You’re paying a hidden tax, and you won’t see the bill until it’s too late.
Every choice has a price, even the ones you don’t realize you’re making. (Especially those).
In economics, they call this price “opportunity cost”. It’s essentially the price of the path not taken.
When you choose one thing, you forgo everything else you could have done with that same time, energy, and attention.
I know what you’re thinking: “Nice idea Tim, but I don’t really care about weird economic concepts!” Fair point. But you should care. You may not realize it, but economic principles apply to many domains of your life, including your work. You’re always incurring opportunity costs; they cannot be escaped.
That’s why you need to be conscious of the costs you’re incurring, and make sure you’re okay with paying the price. Most people never consider the opportunity costs of how they’re living, as those costs are invisible.
Those invisible opportunity costs can be high. Painfully high. Worse, they can quietly kill your dreams. Not cool.
If you’re grinding through just to make it to Friday, you already know you’re giving up your time. You’re likely painfully aware of that. But you’re giving up way more than that. You’re sacrificing the chance to pursue something deeper. More aligned. More you.
You’re losing time you could have spent building something of your own. Learning. Creating. Healing. Serving. Leading. Living.
That’s not just a financial trade-off. That’s treason against your soul.
When you fill your days with obligations that numb instead of nourish, you slowly numb and silence the part of you that longs to come alive. You deny yourself the chance to grow into who you’re meant to become and what you’re here to do.
There’s a deeper cost:
If you’re not pursuing what you’re here to do, you’re not doing it. Which means the world misses out. On your voice. Your art. Your ideas. Your courage.
Your brilliance stays locked up inside you, a beautiful symphony that was never played.
That’s a damn shame.
You might not even fully know what that thing is yet. That’s okay. Purpose isn’t always a lightning bolt. More often, it’s a soft whisper, or a thread you follow in the dark.
But you can’t follow it if you’re always too exhausted, too over-committed, too caught in the noise of a life that isn’t truly yours.
So ask yourself: What is the actual cost of staying where you are? What is the value of reclaiming your time, your energy, and your voice?
Because you can always earn more money. But you can’t earn back the life you might’ve lived, if only you’d been brave enough to try.
Quotation I’ve Been Pondering
“The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” — Joseph Campbell
Journal Prompt
“What weight am I carrying that isn’t mine, and what would I reclaim if I dared to set it down?”
Until next week!!
Work and live well.
Tim
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