By now, you’ve realized that there are enormous benefits to reshaping your life to suit your real wants and needs. Of course, where there’s a benefit there’s also a cost. Quantifying these costs and benefits is a difficult and highly personal task. While we can’t crunch the individual numbers for you, we can definitely help you look at the problem through the right lens. And that is critical, because the heart of Womenomics is really about seeing the world in a new way.
For starters, the notion of what a cost or a benefit is depends on your values. If you’re on a nonstop money hunt, then a 10 percent raise is a definite benefit, even if the cost is more hours of work every week.
If, however, you’re seeking a well-rounded life that embraces your family, your passions, and the simple joy of a small amount of free time each week, then things begin to look different.
It’s this difference that’s most important when you think of cost-benefit analysis, Womenomics style. What we’ve been trying to show you in this chapter is that the mental game is about getting past some of the most serious obstacles—the internal, personal ones—and finding real success. Now, we want you to start putting the ideas of the mental game into practice.