What's it Worth to You?
I’m going to write about a subject that may be touchy for you. It is for me. I usually try to stay on the edges of touchy topics because I don’t love conflict, especially in the written word because I never know how you’ll take it, but I’m going for it today.
Why now? I believe avoiding touchy subjects makes life harder. Instead of facing the thing, we walk in circles, go twice as far and wide thinking we’re better off that way. In reality, we’ve just wasted time and energy, and usually money, too.
So let’s get to it: how do you price what you’ll spend on important things?
What’s expensive to you? What’s affordable? What’s not worth it? What will you buy no matter what? What are you willing to sacrifice in order to have the value?
These are the conversations I have multiple times a week because I offer a service for a price. It’s not cheap. But then again, how do you decide if what I’m offering is “worth it”?
This is where it gets super sticky for most of us. We can feel defensive when we are confronted about how we spend money. We all know our health is worth it, especially when we don’t have it, but before then, it’s easy to question the investment value.
What if you could add up all the time you spend thinking about your body, your shape, your weight, your clothes, you fitness (or lack of) and use that time for something productive instead of something critical?
When recent graduates of Formula3 were asked what they would tell themselves 6 months ago, the most common replies were:
“I wish I had started sooner.”
“Do it!”
“This is the answer to my prayers.”
One person even said, “I would do it again 100 times, knowing how much better I am now.”
But that’s them. They already crossed the threshold and believed in the process. So why are they different? One reason is that they followed through with what they committed to. They trusted themselves and the process enough to try something they had never tried before.
And here is where we can all learn a powerful truth about our behaviors: if we don’t trust ourselves because we have not done what we said we would do in the past, we won’t be able to trust anyone else. This doesn’t mean we won’t ever change, but it’s a major hurdle to get past, for all of us.
If you don’t trust yourself, everything is too expensive because spending your time, energy, emotions and money and then getting nothing in return is wasteful.
However, the opposite is also true. The trust gap can be crossed by building confidence in your own ability to do what you say you’re going to do. Be faithful to yourself. Do your to-do list, even down to the minutia of personal care chores like flossing your teeth, making your bed in the morning and putting away your laundry. These menial chores that get left undone so often create a cluttered pile of distrust in our minds. Then, when we’re confronted with the opportunity to change some big habits, our subconscious reminds us that we’re usually flakey and it won’t work for us.
Thankfully, this is a huge element of the coaching process that we work together on in Formula3. Through practice and repetition and experimentation, we build your ability to try new things and believe you can do them. This is a key ingredient in the sustainability of change; you know you can do it.
So, when you’re trying to decide whether or not joining a program designed to improve your personal habits forever, remember: the value of change depends on your personal trust factor. If you have a low estimation of what you can do, any price will be too high.
But if you believe that you can be taught the skills needed to improve your eating and exercise habits in a different way than what you already know, it will be worth every cent you invest.
