#thankyouveterans #sacrifice #commitment #opportunitycosts #youropportunity

Monday was November 11, reminding us all about the importance of sacrifice in our every day lives. Veterans Day (or Armistice or Remembrance day) every year should bring perspective.

People who you will never know and will never meet sacrificed everything. And you are directly benefiting from their decision.

Men and women across the world have fought for what they believe in, foregoing traditional comforts, pleasures, and enduring pain and suffering in the process.

So thank you, veterans, for your dedication to sacrifice in the name of the nations and people you protect and fight for.

And now I want to turn the attention to you.

Yes, you, my friend.

What are you sacrificing for right now? What are you fighting for? What are you striving for?

What comforts or pleasures are you foregoing to make tomorrow better than today?

Sacrifice itself means giving one thing up for another, but substantial sacrifice requires something(s) of high value. Sacrificing a life, for example, as so many people have done for the freedom and protection of nations, means a great deal because the risk and cost of a human being is high!

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We face small sacrifices every day, though. Maybe another way you can think of sacrifice is with an economics term: Opportunity Cost.

Opportunity Cost means that choosing to do one thing means you choose NOT to do something else. That $5 dark chocolate mocha you get at Starbucks means you're NOT going to spend that $5 on something else. So whatever we choose to do also costs whatever we end up not doing as well.

Veterans put their lives on hold to serve and protect. That may have amounted to an opportunity cost of other careers, starting a family, or simple pleasures we enjoy in modern society.

You have opportunity cost decisions every day.

Will you choose to put in the work at school to get better grades or hang out with your friends? Will you choose to dedicate time to training outside of practice or play Xbox of PS4 when you get home at the end of the day?

Each minute spent on one task or activity means a minute NOT spent on something else.

Achieving your goals after you've sacrificed to get there will mean a lot more than if something were just given to you. When you give up one thing for another, you learn the importance of your actions and the value of your energy.

Think of your sacrifices. What are you giving up in the name of something beyond you? What opportunity costs are you experiencing in your own life?

Stay frosty, friends. Thank a Vet.

Josh