If You Want to Achieve Your Dreams, You Must Embrace The Tradeoff
Everything is a sacrifice of something else.
You want a sexy and fit body.
You want to write a novel.
You want to travel the world.
You want to make a mobile app.
I get it.
Well, how do you do it?
Or, put in another way, why is someone else able to achieve it while countless others—who say they want the same thing—are not able to achieve it?
Simple.
Because they’ve accepted the tradeoffs that come with it—knowingly or unknowingly.
They know they have to sacrifice something else in order to do what they want—whether it’s comfort, money, security, or other people’s approval.
They’ve made the decision that the things they sacrifice pale in comparison to what they actually want.
I’ll give you a simple example:
Let’s say you want to travel the world while working remotely.
What do you have to sacrifice?
The time and effort it takes to save up or prepare for your trip. The hard work it takes to find a job or build a business that allows you the freedom and flexibility to achieve your goal.
In fact, those two things can take years. (It did for me.)
Then, there are lesser things. The comfort and stability of having the same home. The comfort and stability of having your friends and family near you. The opportunity cost of not being able to do other things because travel will occupy a large chunk of your life.
A lot of people consider those tradeoffs—or barriers, obstacles, challenges, or whatever the hell you want to call them—and freeze.
Rather than accepting the fact that those tradeoffs are the “ticket” to the destination, they say things like, “I’m too busy,” “It’s too hard,” “I’m not as lucky as they are,” etc.
But in reality, they should say, “I’m not willing to make the sacrifices it takes to do what I want.”
And you know?
It’s 100% fine to say that.
In fact, it’s almost liberating.
Because rather than having some pipedream and thinking, “If only…,” you made a conscious choice that it’s not the right decision for you (or at least for the current moment).
You acted decisively and it shifts the power and control into your hands.
Here’s a little story: When I was in university, I wanted to walk-on to the NCAA men’s golf team. I loved the sport, I played competitively in high school, and I was pretty decent. I met the coach, he told me what I needed to do, and I started working on it.
I practiced almost daily. I played more often. And over time, my game really improved.
BUT… it still wasn’t quite where I needed to be.
And to get to that next level, the truth was I had to practice far more. I had to get more coaching. I had to play even more. I had to work out more. I needed to be far more detailed with every swing, every hole, and every round.
Then, if I did join the team, I would be traveling around quite a bit for tournaments. I would have to play, practice, and work out a lot with the team. I would have to take classes at different times. Etc.
So I thought about it: Do I really want to spend all that time on golf?
I loved the sport since I was kid, but at the same time, if I had to do an extra few hours a week, it would probably start feeling like work. At the same time, I also wanted to do well in school, enjoy my college life, study abroad, and be able to drive back home to LA on the weekends to hang out with friends.
That’s when I made the decision:
I didn’t want to make that sacrifice.
It wasn’t that important to me.
And you know what?
It felt empowering. It felt liberating. I didn’t make any excuses. I didn’t blame my genetics. I didn’t say I was unlucky.
And if anything, I appreciated the athletes who made that sacrifice and reached that level—more than I ever did before.
Ultimately, there are only so many hours in the day. There are only so many fucks you can give.
If you want to achieve certain things, it’s time to accept and embrace the tradeoffs that come with it.
If you’re not willing to (either for now or forever), accept that too.
But let me tell you what you should NOT do.
You shouldn’t lie to yourself that you really want something, but dip only one toe in the water because you don’t want to fully accept those sacrifices.
You shouldn’t make excuses as to why you can’t achieve something when you’re not actively making those tradeoffs.
For example, don’t say you want to be “completely fluent in a language” and you’re not taking intensive lessons or classes. (Doing Duolingo and taking one lesson a week will not get you to fluency unless you’re a genius.)
Don’t say you want to “have a six-pack” and you’re not exercising 4–6x per week or eating super clean most of the time.
Don’t say you want to become a “professional writer” and only write once a week for a few minutes or whenever you feel like it.
Because the overwhelming odds are you won’t achieve your goal.
Worse, you’ll be out of integrity because you’re lying to yourself.
If you really want those things, embrace those sacrifices.
If you don’t want to make those sacrifices, accept that reality and tweak your goal.
It’s fine to simply “dabble.” (No one’s judging you. No one would even know!) It’s fine to say, “Hey, I don’t really want to make all those tradeoffs right now. Maybe in the future, but for now, I’ll pass.”
Now, maybe you know all of this already—great!
But if you’re like me, you can always use the reminder.
Good luck.
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