Everything Worthwhile In Life Has A Price Tag

George Chingarande | Monday May 12, 2014 17:08

These ambitions vary in form and scope but they are ambitions never the less. Some ambitions are as simple as losing weight (and this is one of the most commonly pursued endeavours in a generation obsessed with appearance and health) and some ambitions are big, hair rising goals such as acquiring a phenomenal fortune (this too is a very common pursuit in this hyper-materialistic generation).

The existence of ambition is a commonality among human beings. In every shop I enter, be it a small street corner shop or a hyper market, there are goods. These goods are there for the taking. There are a couple of things that I have noticed about these goods. First; every good comes with a price tag. Second; who you are determines your perception of the price.

Very few shops practice price discrimination; the price is the same for everyone. However, people have varied reactions when they are told the prices of the goods. This teaches me that the problem is not the price, because the price is neither selective nor esoteric.

The problem is with the people; they wish the prices were cheaper instead of working to increase their capacity to afford. These observations have led me to a simple thesis on life and success. Everything in life comes with a price tag.

The price is never too exorbitant that you cannot afford; and it is also never too low to allow pretenders to grab it. Furthermore, the people that always wish things were cheaper tend to settle for low quality lives characterised by little ambition, small problems and inconveniences and no achievements.

However, the people that know the importance of meeting the required price go very far in the journey of life. Some people are price conscious. They run scared every time they see the price flash. Successful people are value conscious; they seek to understand the value of a good and how it will benefit them and then seek ways of paying the price. What are these prices that we must pay to realise our ambitions. Below we discuss some generic ones. 

 

Assumption of responsibility

The greatest temptation in life is to evade responsibility and apportion blame. Unfortunately, life is a DO IT YOURSELF enterprise. Success is nothing but a series of right choices; and failure is also a product of a series of wrong decisions and actions. You will always have choices to make.

William Ernest Henley expressed it succinctly when he said, “I myself, am my own commander and the captain of my soul. I am master of my fate.” Accepting full responsibility for every single thing that happens in life is a big price that we must pay because the common tendency is to blame others and circumstances. It takes great courage to choose to be personally responsible and accountable for everything that happens to you. Take responsibility. Make the right choices, because they will either steer you that bit closer to your goals, or away from them.

 

Immediate action

Nothing succeeds without action. Immediate actions expedite the progress towards a successful end. The tendency in life is towards procrastination. Procrastination is like spending borrowed money. It is a lot of fun until you are required to pay what you owe. The Law of Diminishing Intent proposes that if you don’t take action soon after the idea strikes you and the emotion is high, fairly soon the urgency starts to diminish. And the longer you wait, the less likely you will ever get the job done. The people that succeed most have acquired the habit of taking action immediately. Those that sleep a little longer; dither a little longer; vacillate a little longer also take much longer to get to their destinations if at all they get there. Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.

 

Acceptance Of The Imperfect Nature Of Human Beings

Many people hold on to the ideal of perfectionism. But perfection is just a myth. It does not exist. It is often used as an excuse to discourage oneself when one fails to apprehend it.

The perfect moment; the perfect plan; the perfect action and the perfect person has never existed and is not about to come. Success requires that you bury your pride; forgo your ego and accept that you are imperfect and you have to begin your journey now with those imperfections in tow. Do your best; strive to be good; strive to become better than you were yesterday; because that is all that matters. If excellence really matters to you; you will soon discover that perfection is illusory. Because if your work truly matters to you, you will never ever reach that state anyway.  Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

 

Criticism is an inevitable price

To avoid criticism say nothing, do nothing and be nothing. Life is not a popularity contest. If you attempt to achieve anything noteworthy you will attract lots of criticism and acquire lots of haters. To succeed you must be willing to be criticised, and you must be willing to offer yourself up for criticism. There is great value in criticism because it alerts us to issues that we may not have paid adequate attention to. Always look for the value in the criticism and do not bother yourself with the attitude and intention behind the criticism.

The person that dares to fail spectacularly, also gives himself the chances to succeed phenomenally.

Failure and success are the different sides of the same coin; with every action you take you toss the coin into the air, and you will get one of the two as an outcome. It is impossible to dare greatly and not cause a stir. If you live so cautiously as to avoid failure and criticism; you might as well not live; in which case you fail by default and you will be criticised for your cowardice.