The Cost of Doing Nothing

How I Trained Hard for 20 Years and Still Missed What Mattered

The cost of action can be high, but there is an overlooked cost that is much higher: the cost of inaction.

Most overestimate the consequences of action while underestimating the consequences of not taking action.

Working out has never been difficult for me. Even eating healthier foods, once I realized how much better I felt, hasn’t been challenging in recent years.

Yet I spent the majority of my life at 5-10% above my goal body composition. I never completely let myself go, but I was far from what I desired and what I knew was possible.

It took me almost 20 years of consistent working out, athletics, eating realtively healthy, and even working in the health and fitness space to achieve sub 10% body fat (a long time goal of mine).

What was missing?

The fear of action and the neglect of inaction.

From the outside looking in it may look like there was plenty of action.

And there was…but only within my comfort zone.

Inaction rarely occurs within our comfort zones or expertise.

Inaction occurs outside of our comfort zones and within those areas that we know, deep down, that we need to change.

For me it was my relationship with food – mainly consuming the appropriate amounts.

I grew up consuming highly processed foods in high quantities. Chips, cookies, pizza, sugary cereals, soda, and fast food were regular parts of my diet.

This is in no way to blame my upbringing on my inability to get lean – but habits from our earlier years can be hard to break.

I ate when I was bored, I ate when I was tired, I ate to avoid my emotions, I ate fast, and I ate until I was stuffed (in a home of 3 growing boys, those last two were requirements if you didn’t want to miss out).

As I gained weight, I found myself experimenting with strict diets – even at a young age.

I followed a Weight Watchers program in middle school, living on a points system, limiting myself during the week to indulge on weekends.

I followed a strict low fat, low carb, low calorie bodybuilding diet while working out 2x/day in high school. I remember one night, probably after a dinner of 6 oz of tilapia and a cup of broccoli, laying on the ground in the kitchen. I was exhausted, denying myself the food my body desperately needed, complaining to my mom about how hungry I was.

I continued to chase action in areas I was comfortable with—working out and crash diets—while neglecting the uncomfortable areas.

• Why I overate when I was tired or stressed.
• Why I had such a hard time eating a reasonable amount of food and not stuffing my face (even with ‘healthier’ foods).
• Why, as soon as I started to see some positive progress, would fall back into my old habits and self-sabotage my progress.

For many years I overlooked what inaction – a refusal to work on the areas I know that I needed to – was costing me.

My favorite way to avoid thinking about the cost of inaction was a movie at home and a dessert at the end of a long week – which only exaggerated the cycle of avoidance and guilt.

It wasn’t until the pain of inaction was great enough that I finally followed through on what I said was important.

Change didn’t happen overnight. It never does.

A large part of this was maturing in my relationship with God and my relationship with my wife Lindsey. We got coaching for our marriage and I got coaching on how to be more open and vulnerable with my emotions. As I grew in these areas, things started to improve.

As our family grew, the pain of inaction grew stronger. Without me speaking a word, I saw my daughter follow in my example. For you parents, you know that’s great for the good things, and really scary for the not so good things.

I didn’t want my dysfunction to get passed down. It was already affecting our marriage, and I didn’t want my kids to follow in my same negative patterns.

Most of all I didn’t want to keep falling short of what I knew was possible. If you’re struggling, or have ever struggled, with knowing what you’re capable of (but not following through) then you know what I’m talking about.

So I decided to change.

I stopped running from inaction.

And it wasn’t a workout program or another diet I had to run to.

It was the inner work that led to the outer changes.

It was learning how to be emotionally healthy, to choose being disciplined even when I didn’t feel like it, and to be held accountable – both to myself and to others.

Don’t fall for the trap of overestimating what action will cost you.

Inaction is so much scarier and will be the thing that will bring a slow death to any area of your life.

Here are some common costs of action and inaction:

Following an exercise program:

• The cost of action: it will be hard, I don’t know what to do, I might get hurt, I might be sore, I might look stupid.
• The cost of inaction: being overweight, developing serious medical conditions later in life, not living as long, not being able to play with your kids/grandkids.

Starting a new diet:

• The cost of action: learning to cook new meals, knowing what to get at the store, not enjoying the food I eat, having to give up foods I love.
• The cost of inaction: low energy, sickness, poor hormonal health/libido, weight gain.

Getting more sleep:

• The cost of action: giving up late night scrolling or TV, getting to bed earlier.
• The cost of inaction: poor energy, low recovery, emotional swings, hunger cravings, irritability, brain fog.

Changing jobs or starting a business:

• The cost of action: you might fail, you might not like it, it’s comfortable where you’re at.
• The cost of inaction: you’ll never know what’s possible, you won’t experience the potential for massive personal growth, regret.

Moving across the country:

• The cost of action: costly, might not make friends, it’s a pain to move.
• The cost of inaction: missing out on something so much better that God has for you.

The last one resonates for us – because Lindsey and I have made two cross country moves in our first 6 years of being married.

Both were hard. Both were uncomfortable. Yet both led to something even better than we could ever imagine. Both were exactly what we needed – even though there was resistance to both.

When taking action, it’s easy to focus on what you need to give up and what you’ll miss out on right now. When ignoring action, it’s easy to overlook what you will have to give up and what you’ll certainly miss out on down the road.

If you want to change, you have to learn to see how the consequences of inaction are so much greater than what it will cost you to take action.