When I was younger, I thought constantly about the things I wanted to accomplish, because we live in a society that’s geared toward achievement. But when I was being encouraged to dream big back then, nobody ever warned me about tradeoffs. Nobody warned me that you give up some things in order to pursue other things. I was under the impression I could have it all.
I’ve thought a lot about choices in the past few years. For a long time, I tried to avoid making choices, because I looked at life as a buffet where you just kept adding to your plate. Maybe my metaphor wasn’t too far off, but I didn’t realize that the “plate” we have in life is of a limited size. If your plate is full, something has to come off as you add more to it.
If you devote yourself to pursuing a dream of some kind — wealth, fame, early retirement, whatever the carrot dangling in front of you is — you always give up something else. Only you can decide which tradeoffs are worth it — and nobody can spare you from the certainty of having to make the choices, whether they’re conscious or unconscious.
As I thought about this Monday night, I was reminded of a quote from investment guru Jim Rogers. In his book, “Investment Biker,” he discussed the tradeoffs involved in pursuing whatever it is you want:

It can take a lifetime of work to overcome abusive ‘programming’
Another firm ‘going Galt’ as hedge broker blasts financial corruption
If your own life is all messed up, lecture others about fixing theirs
For rest of my life, I’ll constantly re-interpret mother I didn’t know
Unconscious programming makes us eager to believe our own lies
Freedom of the press is for everyone, not just those recognized by feds
Tenn. woman threatened for allowing daughter to ride bike to school
I’d love to move to the Caribbean, so what’s been keeping me here?
Join me Tuesday for some live radio — if you can stomach an hour of me