Opportunity Cost

You sit at the board and suddenly your heart leaps. Your hand trembles to pick up the piece and move it. But what chess teaches you is that you must sit there calmly and think about whether it's really a good idea and whether there are other, better ideas. -Stanley Kubrick

And so it is with life. Everyday we make choices. Most of the time our choices are not between good and bad options, but between good and better options. The busyness of the Christmas season magnifies the importance of choices regarding our limited time, energy, and finances.

Economists call choosing between more than one good alternative opportunity cost. For example, if a business purchases new machines to make the same widget more efficiently than before then an opportunity cost would be money that is not spent on research and development to make new and better widgets in the future. The economist would argue that many people can make poor economic decisions because they don’t consider opportunity cost. I contend we can make poor decisions with our time and energy because we don’t consider opportunity cost. We often do what is expected and easy rather that what is better and right.

• Nothing is wrong with going to a few Christmas parties. But maybe a better option is saying “no” to a party so we can say “yes” to staying home and playing games with the kids.
• Being connected to a constant feed of information and the world can be good too. But maybe a better option is unplugging from technology so that we can more deeply connect with the friends and family with whom we are physically present.
• Giving our kids many gifts and making them feel loved is good. But maybe a better option is giving them a few less gifts, giving the saved money to a charity, and then serving at the charity together so the kids have an opportunity to love.

The problem often comes with saying “no”. We don’t like saying “no” to what is expected or what is good. But, by saying “yes” to what is expected and what is good, we are often forced to say “no” to what is better and / or what is right.

The Christmas gift you can give yourself this year that will keep giving back to you throughout all your years is to manage your schedule and money so that your schedule and money don’t mange you. Define your priorities and dream big. Align your resources to live out your priorities and chase down your dreams. Paul says the same thing when he wrote to the Romans: Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.