We live in an age of new technologies, higher and faster forms of communications complete with all kinds of new inventions, methods of marketing and exposure to emerging opportunities worldwide. Behind all of this demand for newer and better things, there is one quality, which we must possess in order to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it!

Countless biographies reveal this one fact: Those who have accomplished and achieved great things spent considerable time in dreaming, hoping, wishing, desiring, planning and preparing before they achieved their desired purposes.

The story is told of a woman who rushed up to the famed violinist Fritz Kreisler after a concert and said, “I’d give anything to play as beautifully as you do!” Kreisler looked at the woman and said, “No, you wouldn’t!” The embarrassment the woman indignantly replied, “I would, too give anything to play the violin as you do.” Then Kreisler said, “You’d give anything to play as I do, except time—except the one thing it takes to accomplish the fact. You wouldn’t sit and practice, hour after hour, day after day, month after month, year after year.”

It has also been said that, “everything has a tradeoff”. To get something we want in life almost always seems to require us to give up something else. A father may have to postpone (tradeoff) completing an assignment in exchange for attending a child’s baseball game or band concert. The preparations for future retirement may require the investment (tradeoff) of the money that could be used to pay for a newer car, nicer home or other luxuries. The ability to perform well, as a musician or student, may require the tradeoff a fun night out for the possibility of a successful future performance.

Indeed, all of life is a tradeoff, especially for those who are already busy, as tradeoffs often come in the form of a sacrifice. There just is not enough time to do everything we ought to, or should do. Not to mention everything we are expected to do. When we are observant, we find ourselves making tradeoffs everyday, because everything we choose to do is a choice NOT to do something else.

Some tradeoffs are worth making, the real question is, was the tradeoff you made this week for something else you believe in worth it?