What’s Missing in The Question of: Are You Willing to Pay The Price?
By: Brian Kim - December 14, 2006
By: Brian Kim - December 14, 2006
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Imagine you’ve had a small breakfast but no lunch and you’ve been working hard all day doing physical labor and before you is a thick, juicy 32 oz. steak with mashed potatoes smothered in beef gravy, string beans, yams, an ice cold beer with foam running over the glass, and a nice big slice of thick, mud-like chocolate chip cake. The cost?
$40.00.
You would gladly pay for it would you not? Why? Because you know exactly what you are going to get in return for it.
You pay $0.75 for a Snickers bar because you know exactly what you are going to get in return for it. A Snickers bar.
You pay $1.00 for a bottle of Arrowhead water because you know exactly what you are going to get in return for it. A bottle of Arrowhead water.
You were willing to pay the price because you knew exactly what you were going to get in return for it. And more often than not, what you were getting in return (at least in your mind), was more than the price you were willing to pay for it.
So often we hear the quote, “You have to be willing to pay the price.”, but here’s the most important thing that is left out: for what? You have to be willing to pay the price for what exactly? Some people don’t want to pay the price because they don’t know what they want to pay the price for. That’s why it’s extremely crucial that you FIRST set what it is exactly that you want and THEN you will be willing to pay the price to get it.
Let’s go back to the first example and imagine the dinner plate was covered with a checkerboard piece of cloth and the crafty, shifty eyed waiter charged you $40.00 for this “mystery dinner”. Would you be wiling to pay the price? (for all you know there could be dead maggots or mice brains underneath that cloth (sorry for the visual, it’s just to prove a point)).
You probably would not pay the price and leave and that’s what many of us do. We don’t want to pay the price for our dreams because we don’t know exactly what our dreams are. The problem then does not lie in us not taking action; it lies in the fact that we don’t know what we are taking action for. Why should we be willing to pay the price if we don’t know exactly what we are paying for?
This is where visualization comes in handy. Do all you can to picture what it is that you want, what it is that you’re willing to pay the price for. Create a compelling picture. For example, when I was skinny, I had an idea in my mind of what I wanted my body to be like and it was that image I held in my mind that helped me pound through those sets when I didn’t feel like it. To eat that extra meal. To make that protein shake. To write down my progress. To feel the burn in my legs and arms as I could barely walk the next day or lift. I was wiling to pay the price because I knew exactly what I was going to get in return for it.
It’s hard to see exactly what we want because it’s not there right in front of you, and that’s why so few people are willing to pay the price, because they can’t picture exactly what it is they want. It’s easy to pay the price when the candy bar is right in front of you. When the book is right in front of you. When the movie is right in front of you. But what you really want is usually NOT right in front of you, YET. It’s YOUR job to put it there. We are most likely to do an activity because we know what the outcome will be. Take advantage of that process in humans and use it to your advantage by visualizing.
I leave you with the following question: If you can clearly paint the picture of tomorrow by visualizing exactly what it is you want, would you not pay the price today in order to get it?
December 14th, 2006 at
Brian,
What an excellent post! As Bob Doyle says in The Secret, most of us are just attracting by default. In other words, we are just letting life hand us what it wants to hand us, and then we sit back and wonder why we don’t have the things that we want. Visualizing and feeling the feelings of having your desires is a critical step in the process of making those desires happen in the first place!
If the people of the world would just focus with all of their heart on ONE THING that they wanted each and every day, people everywhere would suddenly start enjoying life instead of just sitting around waiting for what was going to happen next.
Great post!
December 15th, 2006 at
Hi Aaron,
Thank you very much for the kind words! I really appreciate it.
I agree with you 100%. People have GOT to become more proactive on focusing on what they WANT, not on what they don’t want.
December 17th, 2006 at
Hello Brian Kim,
All of your articles are excellent and you are obviously extremely
insightful and intelligent.
One of my favourite articles of yours is - The Power of Focus. I
truly believe in this power! However, do you have any advice for
those of us with young children?! We cannot focus 100% on our
career goals I can assure you of that!
Thank you for your website.
Jan
December 17th, 2006 at
Hi Jan,
First off, thank you very much for your comments. I truly appreciate it!
The Power of Focus is one of my favorite articles as well.
I’ve got to be honest with you Jan. Since I’m single and don’t have any children of my own, it would be hard of me to give you advice on how to focus on your career goals if you have young children. I can’t begin to imagine how much time they can take. It wouldn’t be fair of me to write advice in which I have no experience on dealing with. However, what I can do is get in touch with someone who shares a similar situation as you who can maybe provide you with some advice. Please check back here shortly.
Thanks again.
Brian
December 17th, 2006 at
Hi Jan,
I am a mother of a three year old son and I tried to go back to work part time after he was born. I was very lucky as I had a very supportive husband. Neither of us wanted him to be in care full time so my husband changed jobs so that we could both work part time in order to always have one of us home with our son. This was fantastic for our family but not so good on our budget, so I made the decision to work from home and build up a business that will sustain us for our future, and my husband went back to work full time. I received some fantastic advice at a recent company training evening. A woman who has built up a six figure income in this business around her six year old daughter after recently separating from her husband. What she said was, similar to Brian, that you need to decide exactly what you really want from life. She realised that she was a forty year old, divorced, school teacher struggling to keep her house and nothing was going to change if she didn’t. She said that she realised she was teaching her daughter how to be a failure in life and she didn’t want that to be her legacy. So she used whatever time she had to focus on her goals and set out a workable plan for each day to make the most use of it. (Here’s a tip - stop watching TV. We didn’t connect our TV for 1.5 years and it is amazing what you can accomplish in the time you used to waste)
So I guess my advice as a working mother is to decide EXACTLY what you want and get your children involved. Tell them what your dreams for the future are, explain how the dreams will assist their lives and ask for their help. Kids are amazing and they will get involved and keep you on track more than you will for yourself. My son walked up to me the other day with his toy phone and told me “Mum, you have to be quiet now I am talking to a customer, no talking please” and when I told him one day that I was going out and Dad was staying with him because I needed to get customers so that I didn’t have to go away to work again he told me “Go, go and get some customers” and when I get a new customer he says “Thank you so much for getting a customer and making money Mummy”. Finally we were also told not to let your reason for your goal stop you from reaching your goal. For example if your goal is to work hard enough in the short term to be able to retire and spend time with your family. Don’t always stop working on your goal to spend time with the family. Decide how much time you need for your goal and don’t let distractions stop you from getting there.
I hope this helps Jan. Good luck with your goals and remember the best thing you can teach your children is to strive for something!
December 17th, 2006 at
Emma,
Thank you very much for the EXCELLENT advice. I really appreciate it. What you said about getting your children involved, I never would have thought of that. Unplugging the TV - I second that piece of advice. There’s a lot of gold nuggets of advice you can take from there. Hope it helps Jan.
Thanks again Emma.
Brian
December 17th, 2006 at
Thanks Brian & Emma for good advice. Right now - two boys
age 3 & 5 - so it’s full on…but yes, really have to make
the most of every free minute now!
I will be a regular visitor so I will continue to learn from your
website. Thanks!!