Earlier this week, I was thinking in the shower (my usual location of great epiphanies), and I thought occurred to me that seemed so simple, I wondered why I hadn't thought of this before. I was thinking about what I had to do for the next three days in relation to my work and personal schedule and realized that there was no way that I could do everything. Therefore, I had to make some trade offs to decide which one of the many activities I had lined up for the week would provide the most "bang for the buck" and ROI (I have to use words like this from time to time to feel like the 70k that I'm "investing" at Georgia Tech for my MBA is being used for something now). From this thought, I decided that the night hanging with the fellows at Twin Peaks probably wasn't more important than my National Black MBA networking event, so that would have to wait for later. Also from this, however, the great truth hit me that life is itself about trade offs and the super successful are those who consistently make the right trade offs for their lives to give up that which can wait for that which will yield dividends for their future. There are three main reasons for this:
YOU CAN'T GAIN SOMETHING WITHOUT GIVING UP SOMETHING
In life, the one resource that will always be finite for each of us is TIME. This makes the planet a zero-sum world, in which our decision to participate in one activity directly affects our ability to do something else at that time. Many people do not ever consider this when they are making decisions. For some reason, they never consider how a decision will add extra burden to their lives and then are extremely surprised when they are not able to do everything they once did in relation to their new endeavor. For example, when many people decide to get a dog as a pet, they often think about how much fun it is going to be to play with the dog when they get home and run around and care for him/her in the afternoons during their walk. They don't think about the 15-30 minutes they are going to have to get up earlier to take the dog out each morning or the time they are going to miss from work every day if they don't have a dog sitter to take the dog out during lunch. While this may only take 30-60 minutes per day of time during the work week, multiply that by five days and you have 2.5-5 hours per week that could be spent increasing your knowledge or polishing up a report for a presentation. While this may not seem like a lot of time to some people, this time could make a HUGE difference over one's career, especially when one is starting out. Whenever you make a decision, you have to look at what you will have to give up for it and then game plan ways to get that back if you feel it is something you need to be successful.
WHAT YOU ARE GIVING UP WILL OFTEN MAKE THE EFFECT OF WHAT YOU ARE GAINING STRONGER
It goes without saying that there are certain combinations that don't seem to match. If you are going to begin a hardcore exercise program each afternoon, you routine of having desert at lunch every day is probably going to make it hard for you to enjoy your workout that afternoon (think drinking warm milk right before a long jog). When making trade offs, understanding those things that will make it harder for you to be successful at whatever new endeavor you are taking on and eliminating them will increase your chance of success dramatically. Sometimes this can be very difficult to do because we get up in the habit of doing the same things each day or each week. However, simple changes in one's life can make a tremendous impact on how successful someone can be when trying something new. If you know that your friends always want to go out and drink on Fridays after work, but you have decided that Friday is going to be one of your gym days, don't put yourself in a situation in which you tempt yourself by going there and promising you will only have ONE beer. Not only will this not put you in a position of failure to need the willpower to say no after one, but your decision to not drink at all will make your Friday work out that much better and effective once you get into it.
WHAT YOU GIVE UP, YOU CAN OFTEN GET BACK LATER WITH A MUCH RICHER RETURN
The concept of delayed gratification is one of the greatest indicators of a success in a person's life. A study was done in which young kids who were able to delay gratification of one cookie immediately for 15 minutes to get two cookies later went on to do much better in school and life by possessing this trait and understanding at such an early age. By making trade offs and focusing on the important things now, you don't give up fun for your life, you just put it off a little while until you are in the position to enjoy it without it affecting what you are accomplishing now. For some, this could mean no ice cream until Saturday after you've finished all of your working out for the week and feel you have earned it as your cheat meal. For others, it could mean staying at home on a Friday or Saturday night studying to earn a degree while your friends are out partying all night. For the person who earns the degree, the attainment of the improved lifestyle (mostly through having access to more money) this person will have after the degree will allow him/her to enjoy a much more enjoyable and pleasure time when they are able to go out and have fun with their friends. Often the friends who were partying so hard before will be nowhere close to the level of financial security that this person will have that allow him/her to travel all over the world if desired.
At the end of the day, trade offs are the things that allow us to truly be able to make better decisions in our lives. We can't have everything (and those that try end up in very difficult situations, e.g. Tiger Woods), so we have to consistently make decisions about what we want for our lives by deciding what is important to us. By consistently evaluating these things, we are then able to better view our lives and know how to create the future that we desire. The truth will always be evident that giving up a LITTLE now can lead to a LOT later.
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.
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