I’ve been offered a couple of things to do recently that I said no to (and, in this blog, I’ll compare that to the “cost of fitness”).
We’ve over spent a bit recently and need to tighten our belts a touch.
So when a friend recently asked if I wanted to do a fitness race with him and another asked about going to a sporting event, my immediate question was “How much we talking?”
I figured I’d probably couldn’t justify the cost right now, but I needed to know how much it would be before actually making that decision.
I was right (about not being able to justify it), but I really needed to know what the actual cost was before making that decision.
Because we really need to know the opportunity and cost involved in all decisions before actually making them.
There’d have been a cost for both that would have been a no-brainer “Yes” and a cost that’s a definite “No” and a tipping point in between.
To give a more extreme example, if someone had said “Do you want to come on a 10 grand trip to Vegas”, I’d have definitely said “I don’t have the money”.
If someone had said “Do you want to buy this house for 10 grand but it’s worth £500,000”, I’d have gotten hold of the money somehow.
We’ll pay pretty much any cost if we think the benefits and opportunities are worthwhile.
But we need clarity on that cost.
Clarity we often don’t get when we say “I don’t have time for this”.
Which is a pretty regular thing I hear from people when they are wanting to lose weight and get in better shape. They’re “too busy”.
“Sure, I get that” I might say.
“How much time would it take?”
“What?” is the usual answer there.
“Exactly how much time would it take to do that?”
“Too much” or “More than I have”.
We usually only have a vague, at best, response.
And when I probe a little deeper, the amount of time they think it will take is usually considerably more than it will.
They think they need to spend several hours a week exercising whereas even a number of minutes will be better than nothing.
They think they need to cook every meal from scratch and eat like a nutritionist whereas they could just reduce current portion size in zero additional time.
Or they could make some tactical adjustments that would take the same time, if not less.
Not doing things that don’t take any time because we “don’t have the time” is a result of not getting clear on how much time it actually takes.
All throughout the day we make cost-benefit analysis’s as we make our decisions.
Usually without realising what we’re doing.
Getting full clarity on the actual costs, particularly time, can be really beneficial for helping us make decisions that serve us better.
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Much love,
Jon ‘a coffee’ Hall
P.S. What we do will take less time than you’re telling yourself. It’ll be more enjoyable too. And it’ll cost a pound odd a day more than joining a normal gym that hasn’t been getting you results. Try the risk free trial via www.myrise.co.uk/apply
