I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where the time has gone? Why am I still engrossing myself in books of all things business, investing, travel & Godin? How could I recoup time spent on past endeavours that didn’t pan out? What did I miss out on because of some of the past choices I’ve had to live with?
How can you quantify the cost of lost opportunity? I doubt it’s possible, but we’ll try.
NB – I’m an engineer, and my better half is currently learning the joys of chemistry and algebra, so you’ll have to forgive me for this post being maths inclined.
One idea would be to sit back, relax and let your mind wander, think about what you could have achieved over the past few years, if all of the planets aligned and the gods smiled down on you, then compare that to your present situation.
Planet Aligning Scenario (Pa) – Present Situation (Ps) = Cost of Lost Opportunity (Co)
But then what about the opportunities that would have arisen from you being at your best? The people you’d meet, the places you would visit, the (possible) financial rewards that would come your way? So now there’s an extra variable: would you say that these opportunities that could arise may be exponential? Say for example, if you met Richard Branson and got on like a house on fire – he’s not going to keep you to himself, he’ll share you around the place. More than likely you’d get to talk entrepreneur trash until the cows came home. With this as an example, the extra benefits of the bonus positive situations that could arise are exponential.
Pa – Ps + Extra Benefitsn = Co
How about if you stay in your current situation? Possibly miserable? In a bit of credit card trouble? A shifty relationship, bottling up your dreams, not following your passion, worse still, not knowing what your passion is? (guilty). I’m sure that this would further detract from your current situation and compound the effects of low spirits. (of course only up to a certain length of time, then sadly who knows what would happen, but I’m not defining a time period, because it would be ridiculous to try and use an integration equation in a blog post)
Pa – Ps + Ebn – Low Spiritsn = Co
Our last cab of the rank would be regret. The age old saying of when you’re on your death bed, will you regret the things you did, or the things you didn’t do? Seeing as how we didn’t move on our idea, our dream, business plan, novel, movie script, whatever, we’ll regret it.
Regret(Pa + Ebn) – Ps – Lsn = Co
Ok maths nerd, very clever. (not really) What’s your point?
R(Pa + Ebn) – Ps – Lsn = Cost of Lost Opportunity
Lost Opportunity = Regret of no (Ideal Lifestyle + Extra Benefits) – Present Scenario – Low Spirits
The Cost of Lost Opportunity (Co) is a balancing act – how strongly would you regret the blundered chance of your dream lifestyle (Pa) that you could imagine for yourself, combined with the exponential & limitless possibilities (Eb) that this would bring with it? Is it more than the drudgery of your present situation (Ps) combined with ongoing low spirits?
There, that right there is your Cost of Lost Opportunity. If your (Co) is enough to make you sit up straight and do something about it, get out there, talk to someone, anyone, change your circle of influence, read some books, mix it up, try something new, fail, fail again, try another business, keep reading and keep at it, most of us are in the same boat.
How about we change our Present Situation (Ps)? This is the constant in the equation and can comprise several things: the environment you’re in, your state of mind, attitude, relationships, perseverance etc.
Imagine if your Present Situation (Ps) was equal to or better than your planet aligning god smiling down on you fireworks going off Scenario (Pa)? Then you’ve either not dreamed big enough, or you’re doing pretty damn good.
Ps > Pa ?
14