Where is the price tag?

Everything in life has a cost.

Everything.

Once you realize that, you will be able to make smarter choices. You will be able to make choices which better suit your personal needs.

Cost is not limited to money. It can also be about your time or your energy.

Money is actually the cheapest cost, because money can be replaced. Your time and energy are limited.

Watch out for hidden price tags. 

A pretty luxury car might cost you $200k. That’s an obvious price tag and you can quickly check how much you need to work to afford it. 

An hour of overtime might cost you one hour of exercising or being in nature or quality time with your family and friends. It can be highly beneficial for your organization or your career. All of these options would be good choices in themselves - and yet, there is a cost to them.

If you decide to meet with friends in the evening, the cost might be that you don’t have time to do grocery shopping and cook a delicious meal. Instead you might meet with your friends at a bar to spend quality time. Thereby you might sacrifice on the quality of what you put into your body. 

Vice versa, if you decided to organize and cook what’s best for you, you might spend several hours on shopping, cooking, eating, and finally cleaning - not leaving enough spare time for friends fun activities on that day. 

These are simple and widely known examples. 

Reflect also on the amount of energy you spend for a topic. It can be pure thinking or ruminating about work, about your children, or about how to decorate your home for the season. The options are endless and it is probable that much of your energy goes into what you think about. If your home decoration won’t leave your mind, your energy to think through work or fall asleep peacefully will be scarce. Your focus will decide about where your energy flows. And your energy has a price tag as well. 

I just want you to be aware that there is always a cost associated. And sometimes we only recognize it in retrospect. For example after not having spent a lot of time with a friend who then moved to another country and wasn’t quickly reachable any longer. 

When you understand the true price of each choice, you stop chasing what is easy and start choosing what truly matters. This awareness invites you to align your actions with your deeper values, not just immediate desires. Each decision becomes an opportunity to protect what you value most and to invest in what will continue to matter tomorrow.