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I am going to touch on an extremely sensitive topic for most people today.  No one ever likes to admit when they are wrong, they fuck up, or they need help to accomplish their goals or fix something.  I realize no one inherently considers themselves dumb, but for a person that prides themselves on being notably smarter than the majority of the masses, I can tell you this is something I suck at on an extraordinary level in my personal life.  I am horrible at admitting that I have failed at something and I tend to keep going or keep trying to change or fix something to the point that it can be detrimental at times.  It's important to keep in mind that when the issues you are struggling with affect other people, sometimes you have to just take the loss and stop trying for both of your sake.  I have thought about the pure amount of energy wasted on trying to change things or solve problems and it is finally dawning on me that it isn't about solving the most complex problems or working through the most difficult challenges that define who we are as people.  It's just something that we do, and who can really say what is more important?  Is it better to cure the common cold or to eliminate all symptoms of it?  Is it better to create a car that runs on water, or to eliminate the dependence on vehicles all together?  Is it better to convince someone you have good intentions or to just continue doing positive things and hoping they realize it on their own?  At some point it's imperative that you must consider things from a cost-benefit relationship.

I am actually a fairly well respected business leader for my age, I'm thirty years old now, and I have people twice my age ask me for advice on a regular basis.  I am not saying I am some gift to business or anything by any means, but the fact is that I often am able to look at things without emotion, make the smartest logical decision, and move forward knowing that I am making the smartest business decision that is possible.  I feel that I need to start employing this behavior in my personal life and relationships as well.  If someone is emotionally draining or toxic to be around, they are costing you something.  If you are exerting too much effort towards a relationship, you are clearly missing out on other opportunities elsewhere in life.  If you only focus on one are of personal growth or development, how many other things did you neglect to fix the one issue?  

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Here is a very simple and quickly put together example of a cost benefit analysis.  Let's say you want to earn extra money and need to figure out the best way to go about it.  You have three options to make some money: You can babysit for one hour per day for five days per week and earn fifty dollars per week.  You could work overtime at your job for two hours per day five days per week and earn one hundred and fifty dollars per week.  You have also been doing well blogging and can spend thirty to forty minutes a day creating a post and average about eighty dollars per week.  You can look at the time investment to actual pay ratio and see that blogging is the most cost effective.  You know from experience that blogging can be variable in nature and that you don't have to post at a set time to achieve your goals so you can also consider taking on one of the other options.  You could do both blogging and babysitting for 9 hours per week investment and further stabilizing your income, while also making a cool one hundred and thirty dollars without having to grind out extra time at your day job.

Ultimately cost-benefit analysis is a good way to figure out an optimal effort to output  ratio for what you expect to get out of something versus what you expect to put into it.  It is good for determining risk as well.  If you need to decide what type of car you should buy, which crypto to invest in, which person to go out with on Friday, or which buddy makes the best roommate, all of these can be looked at through a cost benefit analysis and will help you make the smartest decision.  You can make charts and graphs or just a simple pro/con list for an issue and weigh the gains versus the costs.  In the end, life really is all about trading your time or effort for what you want.  Decide what is most important and go get it.  For example, someone with plenty of money may decide that it's more important to go fishing instead of running their businesses, so to them their is a financial cost of paying someone to run a business for them and a benefit of free time to do something fun and relaxing.  You may decide that it's more important to have a fun roommate instead of a more financially sound choice, so you are putting a happiness and adventurous relationship over a more mild and financially responsible one.  If you let yourself believe that only one thing matters, be willing to have everything else fall by the wayside as a result, and you will have to live with the consequences.  Hopefully this will insight some critical thinking and I'd be happy to discuss further or answer questions in the comments below.  Thank you all for reading and happy steeming everyone.