PAY NOW OR PAY LATER
Recently I led a workshop for a group of high level performers, and part of our conversation focused on the cost of leadership. We talked about how in that important area of life and performance, success requires a significant price to pay. The same is true for you and the places in life you want to be great. The question is not whether winning for you comes at a cost. The question is…will you pay now or pay later?
Many of the major transactions in life come with a “pay now or pay later” option. Banks, credit card companies, and other financial institutions willingly offer us that option for good reason. They understand that as humans, we are naturally hardwired to get what we want now, and then worry about paying for it later. Our need for instant gratification encourages us to mortgage the costs, and in doing so to make paying for today’s pleasure a tomorrow problem. They take advantage of the fact that most of us are often too shortsighted to see how much more that approach actually ends up costing us.
Those lenders make a killing on a simple principle we so often seem to forget, that deferring the payment doesn’t mean avoiding the payment. In fact, it means just the opposite. Not only do you have to pay it back, you have to pay it back with interest. Banks are happy to help you delay those payments because they know the burden on you - and the benefit to them - only grows with time.
That same concept applies to the cost of winning in any important area of life. What does winning today cost? It costs you your time and your effort. It costs you your energy and your attention. It costs you your comfort and your convenience. But even though we know that’s the price winning requires us to pay, human nature encourages us to defer the payment, to avoid that burden, and in doing so to make "doing what winning requires us to do" a tomorrow problem.
That’s why we ignore that issue we know needs to be addressed. We put off that awkward or uncomfortable conversation for another day. We justify sleeping in, skipping the workout, avoiding the struggle, taking the easy way out, and settling for something less than our best.
We are usually pretty good at justifying those decisions, and convincing ourselves that it'll somehow be easier to do that difficult work tomorrow. But it’s important for each of us to see that in the important areas of life, leadership, and performance, deferring the payment doesn’t mean avoiding the payment. In fact, it means just the opposite. That burden you’ve chosen to avoid only grows with time. That problem will be even bigger tomorrow than it is today. That conversation will be even more awkward and uncomfortable, and those difficult, disciplined winning decisions even harder to make. Justifying their avoidance today only makes it easier to make the same choice again tomorrow.
I’m not trying to diminish the heavy cost winning requires you to pay here today. That’s plain for me to see in my own winning pursuit, and I’m sure plain for you in yours, too. What I do want to highlight, though, is that choosing to take the easy way out doesn’t eliminate the cost. In fact, it multiplies it. In time, our willingness to mortgage those payments forces us to confront the heaviest cost there is: the cost of regret. Some day soon it may be too late for us to choose. Our window for winning will be closed. And at that point, all we’ll have to offer is the woulda’s, the coulda’s, and the shoulda’s of an opportunity wasted. That’s a burden each of us should be committed to avoiding.
Pay now or pay later. That’s the decision you and I have to make for ourselves each day, including here today. I hope you can see the value of covering that cost up front, paying that price, and settling that bill - willingly - while you can here today. That’s not easy to do, but tomorrow you’ll be glad you did.
