Video Blog Transcription

(00:00):
Welcome to the Natural Way of Being video blog. This video is titled “The Opportunity Cost of Possibilities.” So there's this really cool concept in economics and investment strategies called opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is the cost or loss of potential gain of other alternatives when we choose one alternative.

So for example, if I choose to invest my money, my resources, in real estate, there is an opportunity cost of not being able to invest and gain from that investment in the stock market. So that's kind of what it's designed for, then we can look at our return on investment and analyze it.

So while I was in this investment workshop about 10 or 15 years ago and heard of this concept, I immediately saw how it could apply to other areas of our lives, to spirituality, and more specifically possibilities.

(01:12):
So today I want to work with it even more specifically and in terms of possibility. I want to look at it as the cost of forgoing other possibilities, because we're choosing to stay in our current situation, perhaps one that we're comfortable with. So there are three different ideas or examples that I want to put forth on this.

The first is with a relationship. So say we're in a relationship, and the spark isn't there as much. We're not having that sense of intimacy; we're not having that love and that passion. And we've tried a lot of things, and it just doesn't seem to be there anymore, but it's really comfortable, and we love them, and we don't want to leave.

And so an opportunity cost would be, the cost of not exploring a relationship where you could have those things, that sense of intimacy and passion and love. So that's one example.

(02:10):
Another example might be around job or career. So again, say we're in a job that's no longer fulfilling to us. We've learned everything we can from it. It's kind of boring, and we really don't like the job very much. And so there's an opportunity cost if we stay in that job of not being able to get another job that we might be more excited about.

Another opportunity cost (there can be more than one) might be not being able to start a new business that I'm excited about. And so the limiting factor here is time and energy. If I'm in one job, I don't have the time and resources to explore another.

And then lastly, a more general idea of this is, when we stay in our comfort zone or our old pattern, there's an opportunity cost of not being able to explore new possibilities.

So there are two things that we need to do to consider the opportunity costs of our possibilities. The first is, we need to allow ourselves to see all of the possibilities. Now, this seems obvious. And of course like, why wouldn't we do this? But there's this tendency to discount the possibilities that lie outside of our comfort zone.

(03:36):
I hear this all the time in my sessions, at least at first, we often eventually work through it. But the first response that I often hear from clients is when I offer different possibilities is, “Oh, I could never do that.”

And then I'm sitting there. Of course, it's easy for me, because it's not my comfort zone. But I'm thinking, “Well, why not? Why couldn't you? It just seems like a choice.” But there's a tendency to not even allow ourselves to see it.

So we just feel like we're stuck. We're stuck in the job, in the relationship. We're stuck in the comfort zone. We create this veil around it so we don't see anything outside of it.

So the first thing we need to do is see through the veil, set the veil down, and see all the possibilities. And then that really opens it up, because once we allow ourselves to see all the possibilities, there's a tendency to start feeling it. And that's the second thing.

(04:44):
The second thing we need to do to consider our opportunity costs is to feel the cost or the loss of not allowing ourselves to explore other possibilities other than our current situation.

Because the reality is, when we make a change, it often happens when the pain of not allowing ourselves the new possibilities, gets greater than the fear of leaving our comfort zone. That's about when we take a risk and get outside of our comfort zone.

So what this opportunity cost business really does, is it kind of like puts it in our face, “How important are these new things that we want?” We say we want intimacy in our relationship. We say that we want to feel our sense of spiritual purpose.

Or we say we want to have a spiritual awakening or the freedom that goes with this amazing yoga practice, or whatever else. But a lot of those things require letting go and getting outside of our comfort zone.

(05:59):
So what this opportunity cost really does, is it kind of tests our mettle in a way. It's like, how bad do we really want it? Do we want it bad enough that we're willing to look at our opportunity costs and explore things that are outside of our comfort zone?

We're able to explore those possibilities that we haven't really allowed ourselves to see and experience.

So, anyway, that's my video blog for this week. I hope you have an awesome week and you allow yourself to see all the possibilities that are around you all the time. Okay, I'll see you in a week.