A Juice Squeezed Situation

Frequently the phrase "juice squeezed" will come up in our house.  My nearest and dearest and his friends would use this phrase to talk about whether or not an idea was worth the effort.  Basically, is it worth the energy of squeezing the orange to get fresh juice or would juice from a can work?  If you have ever made juice by squeezing the fruit by hand you know it is A LOT of effort AND the juice itself is amazingly fresh. 

Frequently in life when we are making decisions, we are weighing two things, we have to make a trade-off and we have to choose.  To get the really fresh tasty juice, we will have to put a lot more time and energy into squeezing the oranges.  Even though we might always want fresh, tasty juice there are definitely situations when we are maybe short on time, short on energy, or both so canned juice will work just fine.

Here are some examples of what my nearest and dearest calls "Juice Squeezed Situations"

• You are invited to stay free at a friend of a friend's house on a vacation but you have to pay to fly there, take time off work and you will be responsible for their giant dog while you are there.  Sounds like a good idea because it is free, but are the other consequences worth the free vacation stay.  
• You get a job offer to do your one of your dream jobs but it requires you traveling 80% of the time and taking you away from your 3 little children and spouse. Is the job worth the trade off?  Is it worth the sacrifice you have to make to get it?
• You are offered a promotion but the new job take place in a windowless building?  Is it worth it to have your dream position but have no access to the outside world?

I confess I am one who always looks at the fresh tasty juice and thinks YES! I want some of that it is SO much better than the canned kind!!  However, I fail to look at the cost (to myself and others) of standing in front of the sink squeezing oranges.  So it has been a life lesson for me to ask myself what is the juice squeezed ratio here?  Is it worth it to take the dream job, if that takes me away from my family and leaves my spouse basically a single parent?  Am I looking at the WHOLE situation here?

I use this analogy a lot with my clients, having them look at an upcoming decision and asking--will this really make me happier?  Is the end result worth the extra time and energy?

Life is about choices, knowing your values, setting your intentions and looking at both the end result as well as the 'payment in time and energy' to get there are key. In order to weigh the outcomes of the Juice Squeezed situation you have to be clear on what it is you value and what your intentions are for your life.  From time to time we all need to look at the situation and ask ourselves--is this a Juice Squeezed Situation?