The Truth About Sacrifices: Reframe Them to Change Your Life

You likely hear the phrase, “You have to make sacrifices” often.

I disagree with this phrase.

You do not need to make sacrifices. Instead, you need to live by your priorities.

Priorities are the things that are important to you. If you’re organized, you’ll know which priorities are most important to you. These are the things that you should focus your attention on.

Lower priorities are things that are nice to have. But they aren’t as important as your higher priorities. Here's a way that you can structure your daily tasks into priorities. This strategy helps you plan out which tasks you do first, which is especially helpful if you’re a busy person.

Living by your priorities helps you create a life that you want to live. They help you make decisions that are in your best interest, not someone else’s.

This article will clarify what a sacrifice is. And it will tell you why you shouldn’t make sacrifices.

Sacrifices are not what you think they are

You see, most people misconceive the term “sacrifice.” They use it to describe the art of making the difficult decision of choosing what to do. And what not to do.

This aspect of a sacrifice is true.

However, where people get sacrifices wrong is when they use them to describe which decision to make.

Here’s an example.

Let’s say you are crunched for time. You have to decide what they are going to do with your time. You have 1 hour each day to do something that you want with. And you’re deciding between two options. You could either exercise for that hour. Or you can spend that time playing video games with your friends.

You want to get fit and strong. But you also want to spend time relaxing with your friends. But you know that getting fit is more important to your personal goals. You’d be much happier in the long run if you spent time working on your fitness.

It’s a higher priority for you.

So, you decide to spend that time exercising. You tell your friends that you have to “sacrifice” your time and stop playing video games with them.

This comes across as a negative thing. It makes it seem like choosing to do the right thing for you is agonizing.

But this decision is NOT actually a sacrifice.

It’s prioritization.

And it’s good prioritization because you are choosing to do the thing that is more important to you.

One quick caveat…

In this article, I’m not talking about sacrifices in the traditional sense. A traditional sacrifice is an act of giving possessions, animals, or people to a deity. These things are precious to the person offering them. However, appeasing the god(s) is more important.

So, the person gives up their lower value in place of their higher value.

However, people use the term sacrifice as a negative thing. And it is causing people to feel doubt, shame, and regret from making good decisions.

In this article, I am describing how people use the term sacrifice in the everyday sense.

What is a sacrifice?

I think that you should reframe what you consider sacrifices to be.

Actions should be called “self-sacrifices” when they prioritize a lower value instead of a higher value. I am using the term “self-sacrifices” in hopes to avoid confusion with the everyday usage of “sacrifice”.

A self-sacrifice is when you offer up what’s more important to you instead of something less important.

This means that you’re placing your attention on the wrong thing.

Let’s go back to the previous example. If you chose to spend time playing video games with your friends instead of exercising, then that would be self-sacrifice. Spending the time exercising is NOT self-sacrifice because you are choosing your higher priority.

Prioritizing the proper things is not self-sacrifice. It’s what you should be doing.

But, prioritizing the wrong things is self-sacrifice. You are offering up something important to you.

People describe the things that they “sacrifice” in a negative light. When in reality, it’s a good thing. Prioritizing higher values is what you should be doing.

So, I think that reframing what we consider “sacrifices” is important to help us develop a better mindset about what we do and don’t do. Prioritization is about making smart decisions.

Making good decisions aren’t sacrifices. They are the right things to do.

When should you make self-sacrifices?

You should never self-sacrifice things. Self-sacrifices do not benefit you. They only hurts you.

Instead, you should make the decisions that are best for you.

Always live by your priorities. Make decisions that are according to your values. If you have to make a difficult decision, make the choice based on which favors your higher value.

That being said, you will have to make difficult decisions from time to time.

But making the right decision is easy when you know what decision would be better for you.

If you can’t decide which decision is the right decision, take some time to think about each option.

Ask yourself, “What benefits would I get from this decision? How could this affect me in the long run?” Write down your answers to the questions for each option you have to choose from. These answers can help you realize which decision will be better for you.

Align your priorities to put your life in order

Living by your priorities makes decisions easy. You always go with the choice that would be better for you in the long run. Always choose the thing that benefits your higher priority.

This makes difficult decisions easy to make. They may sting a bit emotionally. But, you’ll feel comfortable knowing that you made the best decision.

These decisions will help you maximize your time. You’ll no longer waste your time on things that aren’t important.

It’s a bad feeling knowing that you spent time doing something that isn’t as important to you as what you should’ve been doing.

Regret is never fun.

Reframe the way you think about sacrifices. Consider a sacrifice to be good prioritization. Think about bad prioritizations as self-sacrifices.

You’ll stop feeling regret, guilt, shame, etc. for making the right decision.

The right decision shouldn’t make you feel bad when you KNOW it’s the right choice.