What are the biggest costs you incurred in life?
When we think of the biggest costs that we may have incurred in our lives, we generally think of big purchases, medical expenses, expenditures on major occasions like marriage, buying a car or a house, etc.
But are they the biggest costs in our life?
In my opinion, the five biggest costs we incur in our life are :
- Cost of ignorance
- Cost of not spending time productively
- Cost for not paying attention to health at the young age — mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual
- Cost for not investing and nurturing relationships
- Cost of procrastination
Two of the highest costs I have incurred in my life are; spending a lot of time unproductively and compromising my health for work.
Recently, I did a survey and asked people about their biggest costs in life?
And this is how they responded :
- Most of the people, 48%, think that they misspent a lot more time. We all need time to laze, relax, socialize, and even doing nothing. For keeping ourselves revitalized and productive, we all need our “Me Time.”. But spending “Me Time” and spending time unproductively are two different things. Many times, we spend time that has neither any productive outcome nor any great recreational value. In fact, we are not even aware that sometimes spending time on things may be damaging to ourselves apart from not being productive. We spend a lot of our time feeding negative news and trolls in our minds, disproportionate time on the net and social media, which not only wasting our valuable time but creates enough negativity and impacts our mindset in the long run.
Spending daily at least one to two hours in recreational activity is not compromising productivity; rather, that boosts productivity. As the old saying goes, “ All work no play makes Jack a dull boy.”However, the reverse is also true all play no work will Jack a failed person.
Another big issue for many working professionals or business people is getting into micromanagement and unable to delegate effectively. There is a double whammy; on the one hand, people lose their valuable time doing jobs that could have been done by someone else; on the other hand, their people cannot grow because they never get adequate opportunities to work independently.
There are many effective tools for time management. However, this post is not about time management.
In my opinion, rather than trying to manage time, working on staying focused seems to be more effective.
We all have the same 24 hours, some use that to make a fortune, and some are always in survival mode.
There are very few distractions when there is a razor-sharp focus, and we achieve our goals without deviating.
2. 27% of people voted that they compromised health for their work. We never think that our back or neck may not hold ourselves properly one day at an early age. Buring midnight oil now and then leads to an increase in stress, blood pressure, and sugar. When you are above forty and you have climbed your corporate ladder, your job becomes more demanding. You struggle to keep up your body straight because of that stiffness. It is also not about only your physical health. Your mental health and emotional well-being are also equally important.
Sometimes we become apologetic taking those much-needed holidays, thinking that it may compromise our commitment to our job.
3. 15% of people thought they ignored their personal growth and were sucked in routine work or were in inaction. Most people do not plan for personal growth or learning once they into a job or business. They think that the job or business itself will teach them the skills needed progressively. A job or running of the business may provide the operational knowledge that will never be adequate to leapfrog your career or business to the next level. You have to put a deliberate growth plan for your career or business. If you cannot figure it out yourself, you may need professional help.
4. 10% of people did not know how to succeed in their career or business, which has costed them enormously. They were either not resourceful to figure out themselves or did not get enough guidance from external sources. Today, more than ever, the need for constant up-gradation of skills for the managers has become very critical. Gone are the days, you have formal education, and experiences and you will be employable throughout your career. Today technology and business models are everchanging, and we all have to become lifelong learners to be employable all the time.
Our biggest cost in life is not the money we spent buying stuff; our biggest costs are those moments that evaporated, and we could not do whatever we intended in those moments.
