One of the most challenging parts of maturing is accepting the difficult choices you have to make in life.
When you’re young, the world feels full of options. You feel like you can do it all and have it all. But as you get older, you learn that you have to make sacrifices to have the things that are truly important to you.
A quote that sums this up well was in a recent newsletter from James Clear:
“Life is a series of tradeoffs, and greater results usually require greater tradeoffs.
The question is not, “Do you want to be great at this?”
The question is, “What are you willing to give up in order to be great at this?”
It is very easy to think that you want to be great at something, but when it comes to paying the price, perhaps by spending less time with your kids, it becomes very hard to follow through. That’s not to say you can’t have a good family life and be great at something, but that sacrifices will need to be made in other areas of your life and you won’t be able to spend on family.
The sacrifices in our lives become more and more impactful as time goes on. We have more relationships, more responsibilities, more commitments.
At some point, you will have to decide whether your family or your work is more important to you, or which friends are important to you and which aren’t. These decisions often don’t feel good to make and it can’t be tempting to try and trick yourself into believing that you can have it all. But if we refuse to consciously decide what matters most to us, we end up in the muck of a life that is not aligned with our values.
Often, when you’re stuck and refuse to decide between two important things like family and work, you will end up wasting time on a third thing that is way lower down the priority list.
So when you find yourself in the discomfort of a challenging choice between priorities, remember that making a decision is half the battle. Own it, decide what matters most to you and be willing to face the consequences.
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