layout: post title: Equally Valuable Sacrifice date: 2020-05-18 19:11 Tags: [ blog ] permalink: /equal-sacrifice/ author: Kevin Olega —

A person who makes an effort to avoid making a sacrifice often finds themselves in a situation where what they consider to be most valuable becomes sacrificed as a consequence.

I have been meditating on this thought for a few months.

The primary thought for me is…

If I don’t sacrifice anything, I will lose what I found most valuable.

Dwelling on this triggers memories of traumatic personal experiences.

Yes.

This train of thought checks out.

A majority of the biggest losses and every mistake that I regret long term is a result of not making the right sacrifice in time.

I revisit this thought often because I know that this is true.

If I don’t make the right sacrifice, I will continue to lose the things I now consider valuable.

This also reads, that if I sacrifice enough valuable things, I will have the ability to win what I now consider to be most valuable.

We are all familiar with the two human examples of The Ant and the Grasshopper.

If this is your first time hearing the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper here’s a two sentence summary.

The Ant is the character who spent the entire summer working and saving food to prepare for winter.

The Grasshopper is the character who spent the entire summer playing around and as a consequence had nothing to eat to survive during the winter.

In real life we have stories of people who became so financially successful that they lost their families.

We also have stories of parents who spent too much time with their families that they had built up neither resources nor the resourcefulness to keep their personal and family lives in order.

I have seen many personal examples of these.

I still don’t know the solution.

I wrote this short essay to initiate my thought process so I can eventually find a solution.

I find it difficult to sacrifice many of my bad habits.

I’ve sacrificed smoking.

I’ve sacrificed about 50% of my fast food and junk food intake.

I’ve sacrificed many unprofitable and unfulfilling activities.

I struggle to sacrifice reading small stupid posts on social media, engaging in debates that have no real rewards at stake, watching videos and spending too much time playing games.

I’m not sure what the right solution is, but I’m trying to build a schedule where I can dial these down to a Minimum Effective Dose that satisfies me yet doesn’t eat up too much of my productive time.

I just try to keep the though in my head, that every important objective requires an equally valuable sacrifice.

What valuable things do you intend to sacrifice so you can achieve your most important goals?

UPDATE:

2023: I’ve been a big fan of Marvel movies and superhero movies in general. I used to marathon many of these stories. I’ve skipped so many of these shows in the past few years despite being a fan of many of these characters, I now feel that my time is better used working on my current goals.


Thank you for reading.

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