Why is there always a cost?

It often strikes me that one of the greatest challenges people face in life is determining the value of things that don’t have a financial price tag on them.

For example, most of us find it easy to determine if something is worth the ammount of money that is being asked for it – it is worth that ammount of money to you?

In fact personally this is one of the challenges I face when I’m outside the UK – constant conversion back to Sterling to know if I think something is worth the price that is being asked for it.

Now if I ask you how much you value time, fun, freedom, autonomy, a smile, laughter, your future, your life….. how would you answer?

Perhaps you have a really clear answer and if some of those are deeply heald values for you, if they are things that are so important to you that they make up the very fabric of you being trully you then they will have significant ‘value’ – the price tag would be pretty high right? In fact perhaps they would be priceless.

I would also be pretty confident that while you value these things so highly, you don’t honour them 100% of the time…. am I right?

Let’s take a look at value from another point of view.

Chances are that if you’re reading this then you are an inspiring leader of one type or another – an entrepreneur, self employed or aspire to be, at the top of the particular game you play in this thing called life, indeed I expect you are a leader in life.

One of the things I hear time and time again from people I work with individually or through one of my programmes or retreats is how much they struggle to put a price, a financial value on what they offer the world.

When was the last time you got something for free?

How much did you really value it?

How commited to it were you?

You see there is always a cost.

But here’s the thing, and for me this is kind of a sad and hard truth….people value what they pay for more than what they get for free. It is a strange condition we seem to have developed that if something is ‘cheap’ or ‘free’ we wonder what is wrong with it?

You know the saying “ if it seems to be too good to be true it probably is”!

Take the exaple above. Here I am telling you that peoe rarely value what they can have for free and at the same time I'm offering you a FREE download of my ebook! Sounds pretty silly really doesn't it?! 

Actually in this case the free download is to give you the opportunity to learn something that you can apply yourself if you wish. If you are committed enough to do the work with no additional guidance or support. If you are then I am delighted to give you the information for free! The truth is that over 80% of people who actually download something for free will never impliment it. Same goes for courses with no group coaching or support element - people are busy, they just don't have the time or inclination to apply it. So please do download the free ebook and apply it or get in touch if you want some assistance in doing so! 

A great example of this is the commitment people I have worked with show to working with me.

When I first started out I used to work one to one with some people for free – no financial commmitment that is. It’s not uncommon to do this to gain experience, boost your own confidence and establish yourself however it does say something about how I valued what I was offering – more on that in a bit.

Of all the clients I’ve had over the years the ones I worked with for free were the most unreliable on sticking to call times, acting on the things they wanted to change and following through.

Was that a reflection of my coaching?

Not at all, i’ve had many conversations about this with those clients and also other coaches and the answer is consistently the same – if they are totally honest with themselves they simply don’t commit as fully to something that isn’t costing them something.

Why would they? Just by turning up they are getting more than they have ‘paid for’, if they don’t show up or rearrange then it still hasn’t cost them anything.

Think about yourself – If you have to pay for something, and maybe work in order to afford it do you value it more than something you can pick up for free or very little cost – something that comes into your life easily.

What about people?

it works for relationships too – romantic, friendships or professional – we often percieve a person as more desireable if we think they are just slightly out of reach. Thats how the celebrity culture works.

In the prefessional/personal development world the Gurus, those at the top of the game seem a long way away to many – there is a sense that they have or at least can offer more value.

People are often surprised to find that many people at the top of their game are remarkably human, easy and pleased to talk and spend time with those they come into contact with. What does that say about how we value ourselves in relation to others?

There we have it, 3 ways in which the value we place on things affects our lives in significant ways. I know what you’re thinking…. what do we do about this? Why does it matter? How do I affect change in my life with this knowledge?

Here’s five things you can do today to

1) Spend ten minutes thinking about what’s really important to you – what are your values? hat do you value the most? write a list or two – this doesn’t have to be exhaustive just make a start.
2) On a scale of 0-10, where 0 is not at all and 10 is completely all the time; how consistantly are you honoirng your own values?
3) If you had to put a price on what not honoring each of your values would cost you what would that be?
4) thinking about what you offer the world, what would you be prepaired to pay someone to do that for you?
5) What would honoring your values and placing higher value on what you offer the world do for you?

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts and your answers to these 5 questions so pop a comment below.

Off to honour some of my values at the beach, till the next time,

Jessica x

Don’t forget you can download your FREE ebook here so you can go from #employeetoentrepreneur so you can #stopworkingstartliving!