The Road to Things Worthwhile

This revelation occurred to me the other day:

"The road to things worthwhile is paved with costs."

The idea behind this is that we often think of costs as obstacles on the road to wherever we think we are going. In thinking about this over several days I have come to understand that COSTS ARE NOT OBSTACLES on the road to worthwhile destinations. Rather, the COSTS ARE THE ROAD.

Consider this with me. If you see yourself on your way to somewhere worthwhile, you understand there are costs involved. In fact, the ONLY way to get to where you see yourself going is by taking on some sort of cost to get there. Do you see yourself with a college education? Someone will have to take on costs measured in units of money. You will have to take on costs measured in units of time. Do you see yourself raising children? I can tell you there are costs involved in that worthwhile pursuit. Do you want to own a nice house someday? There are costs involved. Do you want to learn to trade stocks? More costs. You will never get anywhere or get anything worthwhile unless you are willing to travel a road paved with costs. Costs are measured in units of time, money, effort and anything else you give away in exchange for something else.

Costs are not bad things to be avoided. Costs don’t attempt to keep you from arriving at your goal destination. In reality, costs provide the avenue you must travel if you ever hope to arrive at your destination. The costs involved in any worthwhile trip help you to measure how worthwhile your destination might be; the greater the cost, the greater the likely worthiness of the destination. Let me insert a warning here: If the cost ever requires sacrifices of integrity and character, the end destination will never prove itself to be worth the cost. The destination will always disappoint you if the cost you paid was measured in units of your integrity and character. Some costs are just too high.

If the goal is believed to be important enough and if it does not require costs measured in units of integrity and character, I think you should continue to travel the road paved with costs. Sometimes; however, while on that road, you will find out that the costs are greater than you expected. That is, the road will be longer and more challenging than you anticipated. You might find yourself thinking that if you had known beforehand all the costs you would encounter - all the pavement that would have to pass under your feet - you would have taken the road to a different destination. You might say: “If I had only known...”

If you find yourself in this situation right now, you have two choices: You can give up and sit down at the side of the road and tell yourself that your goal really was to go only part way or you can keep pushing forward and taking on the costs as they come. Going back the way you came is generally not possible. You can’t get less education, you can’t undo the birth of child, you can’t turn back time or get back the money you’ve spent on any of your costly travels. If, by some strange sequence of events, it becomes possible to take the road back, the road back is still paved with costs.

So here’s what I’m thinking: As long as you are alive you are always on the road to someplace and if you are going to have costs to pay no matter which direction you travel on that road, why not continue to move forward toward the worthwhile things? Take the costs as they come because “the road to things worthwhile is paved with costs”.