Opportunity Cost

Photo credit: Kamile Kvaukaite

Drinking wine at 3AM on a Friday night with old friends. Baking muffins, brownies and all sorts of delicious cakes in an old apron that is too big, hair that is too messy and fingernails covered in dough. Reading books that make my heartbeat uneven. Lazily drinking coffee on rainy afternoons. 

Owning and running a successful company. Creating floods of wealth. Holding international conferences. Writing New York Times bestsellers. Travelling the world.  Making an impact...on a larger scale. 

I want it all and with that, I am a living contradiction... because we live in a world of give and take. To get something, you have to give something up. And if I'm constantly giving things up, am I really ever going to have it all? 

Temptation is always forcing us to choose. Heads or tails. Left or right. The choices we have to make are that simple but the consequences are more complex than we can ever imagine. Sacrifice is the name of the game and temptation is always the dealer. 

I recently started looking up theories behind some of Shakespeare's oldest plays, often trying to link the connection between a lot of the greats: Macbeth, Romeo & Juliet, The Merchants of Venice, Julius Caesar. To state the complete obvious, there is one thing the main characters all have in common: greed. Which makes me wonder from time to time do I want too much? Do we all want too much?

Sometimes I think I do but then I say why not? It's all there for the taking. And then I watch myself fall into that trap. It's all there for the taking but there is always a price to pay. Everyday, the devil  - like a debt collector - comes knocking on your door, looking for things as simple as your favourite pastimes or complex things, like a piece of you, to take away. There's always a trade... an opportunity cost.