Episode 137: The Cost of Doing Nothing: Why Avoidance Is Costing You More Than You Think

In this episode, we dive deep into a topic that affects every one of us—avoidance. Sometimes, doing nothing feels easier than facing tough decisions or challenges. But what if avoiding action is actually costing us way more than we realize?

Together, we explore the hidden price tags of procrastination, indecision, and putting off what really matters. We break down how avoidance can drain our energy, stall our growth, and even impact our relationships and business success. More importantly, we share practical strategies for breaking the cycle and taking intentional steps forward—even when it feels uncomfortable.

If you’ve ever found yourself stuck, overwhelmed, or afraid to tackle the hard stuff, this episode is for you. Let’s unpack why doing nothing is the most expensive choice—and how we can flip the script to move toward progress and fulfillment.

In this episode, we cover:

• The surprising ways avoidance is costing us more than just time
• How procrastination affects our mindset and productivity
• The impact of avoidance on personal and professional relationships
• Why discomfort is often a sign that growth is happening
• Practical steps to break free from the cycle of inaction
• How to build momentum by taking small, intentional actions
• The mindset shifts that help us embrace challenges instead of running from them

Tune in, get inspired, and let’s take action together!

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Read the full transcript of this episode below:

 

Hey there. I’m Lynn. And I’m Amanda. Welcome to the Pursuit of Badasserie, the podcast. Today, we’re talking about a very important cost, the cost of doing nothing.

You know, this can go a lot of different ways, but when we decided to talk about this, I thought of something that a woman that I just met at Money 2020 actually said.

She’s like, when you stick your head in the sand, your becomes a bigger. I was like, that’s brilliant. I’m stealing that.

The cost of doing nothing. Like when you are not in it in your, in your head, when you are kind of being passive, like things can pass you by.

You absolutely get smacked upside the head. Like, you know, and listen, I come from a long line of family that loves the ostrich head in the sand type of thing.

Like it definitely can be a bad habit of mine. Sometimes not. Not in all aspects, but in some aspects of things, but the cost of doing nothing can sting in many, many ways.

You know, we’ve talked about in a previous podcast about that, that natural response for fight, flight, and fawn and freeze.

It’s the same concept here. If you’re avoiding everything, what’s that going to cost you down the line? Just because you’re avoiding, for example, if you’re avoiding your power bill, eventually the power is going to go out regardless of how much you avoid it.

It’s going to happen. It’s the same way with. If you avoid something long enough, you’re technically making a choice to say no to that thing.

Even if you haven’t outwardly said, oh, I’m not going to pay the electric bill. By not paying it, you’ve already said you’re not going to pay it, even if you haven’t chosen to not pay it.

So those consequences still trickle down in your business. So there’s all these things that you are sitting on or waiting on.

You’re missing these opportunities. You’re not jumping on opportunities. And I have been guilty of this. There are plenty of opportunities that I could have taken advantage of, but I waited because I’m like, I don’t know.

I’m going to see how this goes. I don’t feel, you know, you just weren’t ready to take the risk.

And ultimately it comes down to betting on yourself because when you’re the business owner, you’re betting on your ability to adapt and to come out of it if it goes well or if it doesn’t go well.

So by not doing anything, you’re costing yourself way more money, way more time, way more energy than you even realize or could possibly realize.

Absolutely. Absolutely. And headache. Um, so the aspect that you spoke about was more in like action and different things, but like, look at even like all the conversations that you are not having that you need to have, right?

That’s the cause of doing nothing. What happens? It festers, it becomes bigger than what it should. It compiles and compounds itself.

Um, and then there’s the blow up, there’s the disconnect, there’s the wandering eye, there’s all of the things that can happen.

The cause and effect is real of you doing nothing. Um, you know, if you, you, it’s funny because I think of my kids too, where they’re like, ah, cause I raised them watching the secret.

Like you can manifest the law of abundance. And they’re like, I’m just going to manifest this in existence. And believe me, I’m woo woo.

Like I definitely get it, but no, the you can’t. You have to put in action. So the cost of doing nothing except for manifesting is that, yeah, you might, you might,

So you’re not actually really living into the full potential of what could be, there might be some happenstance things that happen, but that means just kind of like it happens to be for those of you who haven’t heard that phrase, but it absolutely is costing you time, it’s costing you money, it’s costing you resources, it’s costing energy, because if you had the momentum or the idea, you’ll eventually lose steam and momentum if nothing’s You gain frustration, so it is costing you that energy as well from a different sample.

And I think about all the business owners and people in general who complain about things not being the way they want them to be, and then not making any changes.

And it’s the same thing, it’s you’re doing nothing and the cost of that is continuing that uncomfortable feeling of not getting anywhere further and not change anything.

They go together, you can’t stay exactly the same, do nothing different, do the cost of doing nothing. Is that you stay the same?

And if you’re unhappy with any part of staying the same, then you’ve done that to yourself because doing nothing means you’re accepting and that you’re saying yes to what you don’t like.

But I would add, I know you’re going to continue, but I would add it’s not even staying the same, not in this market, not in this time of day, like in the world, because the world is evolving so quickly that actually you are going backwards.

Absolutely. the same, the same. You’re becoming irrelevant. You’re becoming someone who doesn’t, that is not needed in that aspect or business sense.

Yeah. It’s like the people who still don’t want to have a website and you’re like, okay, but now it’s a thing now.

Like you could have resisted it for a long time. You don’t need one, just like social media. Like you can resist it for a really long time and that’s fine.

That’s the choice, but don’t be mad when it’s accelerates to the point where you’re obsolete because things are changing.

There is a lot of movement. mean, it’s the same way with people. They changed their prices in 20 years because they want customer loyalty and they’re afraid of raising their prices.

There’s all these little things, but it’s still that it’s that cost of doing nothing. Like, yeah, you’re making your, you’ve got that customer loyalty, you do all these things.

You haven’t raised your prices in 20 years and every year you’re taking a pay cap because every year inflation goes up, every year the things cost more, every year things take more time or the customers will shift anyway.

So there’s a lot of things that fall into that cost of doing nothing and ultimately it’s fear. Like, what’s the reason to not do something, to try something new?

mean, I’m not saying we need to try everything, kind of what it’s true, but it’s your excuse. Yeah, absolutely.

And we’re not just talking about the cost as in financial costs, like it could be in your relationships, it could be in time, it could be in so many different aspects.

So cost is not just finance, or money, it goes across all different aspects. And it. And It really is.

People don’t think about it. They feel like, oh, I don’t do this and whatever. And we’re not saying that you have to do everything either and that you have to do it all.

It could be your VA or your assistant or your manager is doing it or not doing it. But having a critical eye on what should be done and what shouldn’t be done, and especially the things that are of importance to make your world go around and around.

And because there is cause and effect. And, you know, I think of like, you know, we just we released a podcast about money 2020.

So I’ll use that as an example. Going to money 2020 was over three days. I went day one, you went day two, and we both went day three and we did something.

But I also when people ask me, like, would you get out of it? I was like, I got out of it when I put into it.

Right. And so there were some things. So day two is a nothing. Right. If I would have went to it, even though she went to it.

Then I would like, just like she met people, I would meet additional people. Right. So, but the cost of doing nothing that day because of things I had on my plate, just like her day one, she had things on her plate or more of value than going there, like, or more of importance, I would say depending on it.

So you can like, when you’re saying no to one thing, you’re saying yes to another vice versa. Right. So if you’re doing nothing, then you’re also saying yes to lack of growth, to festering that emotion or whatever the case is, like you’re saying yes to something, being lazy.

And sometimes that’s okay. Like checking out. So doing nothing on your business, you know, for a week, for example, I’ve had a, a slight social detox for two weeks, even though we have a team of people, we, I personally like to go offline, minimal, uh, minimize, uh, and sometimes completely go offline for a couple of weeks, almost.

We set analytics like there’s some logic behind it, but there’s also like, you know, I understand like I’m not being in front of people’s faces right now.

Right. So there’s a cost of doing nothing. We can take this kind of term, this, this, this wording and spin it in many different ways.

But the simple fact is, is that you get, you receive what you do or do not fit into things.

Absolutely. And I want everybody to go back. If you have not listened to our episode on sacrifice, this plays right into it because, and I love that you really brought up the emotional side of things because there is, I mean, particularly with entrepreneurship there, it’s not always about money.

It’s not always about time. It’s not always about your family and relationships. There’s nuances there and there are things worth sacrificing in order to make the changes you want to change.

And that’s a personal choice. And that’s situational depending on what’s going on in your life. But all of that comes into play when it, when you think about the cost.

of doing nothing because it’s not just about how much money you make. It’s not just about how much time you spend with your kids.

It’s not just about how your business grows or all your relationships grow. It’s all of those things because we’re not all one thing, period.

We’re holistically many things over the course of the day. Even the most boring person in the world is more than one thing.

So you have to consider that. What are you willing to sacrifice? What is the cost of doing nothing? What is that going to look like six months from now, year from now, 10 years from now?

What are you willing to give up or not? What is, what is the cost you’re willing to give up to see what you want to see at the end of 10 years?

Yeah. You know, there’s that quote going around and you just literally posted it about like the sacrifice of today for the result of tomorrow and the living in tomorrow.

And a lot of people nowadays have it opposite. No, I’m just going to, you know, I’m going to go and just like have Pahana.

I’m with my friend. And I’m like, do all this, but one turns into many. That means you’re doing nothing in your business.

You’re, you’re building relationships in your personal life, but you’re doing nothing in your business. And just understanding that nuance, which kind of ties into my last point is like, I think that there’s also an aspect of, I have this conversation quite often is sometimes the story that we tell ourselves and tell others is not necessarily the actions that we’re doing.

And so we might think we’re doing all the things and we’re talking it up to say that we’re having those conversations.

We’re doing this, we’re doing that, but really you’re not. And so I think that there’s like this stripping back and like really being truly honest with yourself and kind of like, you know, I’ve said this before, use this example before, like working with one of my clients way back when.

And she was just like, I’m doing all the things and I’m not building my business and all this other stuff.

I’m having all these meetings. And she was. you. So when we peeled back, we realized she was only doing maybe one sales conversation a month and so many relationship building and so much this and there were other aspects, but really she wasn’t doing much, but she gave herself the story that she was doing all the things.

And I love, I love my friend group and those but I have noticed and this is not just my friends, but other people as well.

I’ve noticed that. And I think is I noticed that with my friends was like, you know, life is so hard now, like it’s become a batch.

Like, oh, just it’s so difficult. So busy. It’s so hard. It’s so that and again, most of my friends don’t do it, but I definitely see little nuances of it.

And it’s not for me to judge. It’s become like this badge that people put on and but this feeds into the stories and really they’re not doing much.

So it’s like the cost of doing nothing. So there is a cause and a fact because they think the story.

But they’re telling themselves, they’re doing all these things, they’re actually setting themselves up, you know, energy goes where energy flows.

And so they think that they’re doing all the things, but really, they’re doing nothing. And but they have the story in their mind.

And this is with relationships, this is with business, this is with their kids, this is with, like, just life in general.

And, you know, one way to kind of give yourself a reality check is one, do a calendar kind of like, what would it be a calendar, like a little diary, like a little or check, like you can even go backwards in your diary.

And like, check yourself and like, see where all of your energy is going, like really how much you are like bento boxy efforts and see, but looking at your results and looking at your true efforts, like you have to like, differentiate all the different efforts.

And like, especially when it comes to business, like, what the results are that you want, because that those two things, like doing that you

Audit, calendar, audit, and also like your results, audit, and effort, results and effort, audit, people help you. And how they correlate.

So it’s not just, so if you look at your calendar, like, well, yeah, I did all the things. I spent 47 hours on my social media.

But then when you look at what brought profits and zero of those profits came from social media, then all 47 hours of that was a waste of time.

So we get into these feelings where I’m doing all the things everybody says I need to be doing. This is what everybody says I need to do to grow.

But you’re not looking at what’s actually growing your business and you’re putting these, this, like, in this case, social media on this high pedestal.

This is what’s going to get me money. And it’s not doing jack squat for your business. And you set yourself up for this idea that that’s what’s doing all the work.

And then you think that you’re getting so much done, that you have so much on your plate. I’ve just, have a completely booked schedule.

And you’re using that, again, as a badge of honor. Like, I’m so booked out and I’m so dedicated to my job and I’m doing all these things.

But then when you actually… If look at the time spent doing things that move the needle, you realize like, Oh yeah, I’m doing nothing that’s moving the needle.

And all these things that I think are so important are doing nothing for the business. And it’s, it might even, hopefully you’ll see how inefficient you are, because a lot of that stuff that you’re wasting time on is inefficiencies that don’t even need to happen.

We talk a lot about that, the Eisenhower matrix, that is stuff that you can delegate to the trash. If you’re looking at, if you’re auditing your calendar, honestly, truthfully, there are lots of things you can delegate to the trash.

Absolutely. And yes, sometimes you need to have the things like, you know, I could, in theory, emails, I could delegate reading to the trash because I don’t need to, I’m just saying like, I don’t need to read in order to make, but it fills my cup.

So it’s a different. So as you said, like, not everything has the same value. It needs to be put in the same bucket.

Like, yes, it’s time spent. So yeah, it’s about three hours doing that. But that, that’s it’s not. Three hours that I was intending to make money, that’s three hours to fill my cup.

So again, you’ve got to figure out what’s the purpose and audit the correlation. Like what’s the point of that?

What are you, what are you spending that time on? want to respect that, that that’s what it’s for. I mean, we’re don’t beat yourself up.

Read a book, please read book. We’re still reading. They’ve done studies on it now. Yes, finally. Anyway, um, listen, we can go on and on and on and on.

And the thing is, and we’re not, we are guilty of this as well. We understand and we audit ourselves.

We audit each other. We call each other out on it. She just did like two hours ago. did. And it’s, it’s not a one-time fix.

Like the cost of doing nothing. It’s, there’s lots of nothings that we’re all doing and it’s okay. Like we shouldn’t be doing everything and what’s the cost of that.

And so it’s in different aspects, in different kinds of verticals, in different ways. So at the end of the day, yourself a favor, do an audit, because what you gain by actually looking at the cost of doing nothing, what you can gain is clarity, it can give you more direction, it can give you more grounding, it can give you more grace to yourself, it can ease some stuff, stress, it can give you a better just direction and outlook, period.

And you can gain more time and even resources and finances back because of this. And so just really do yourself a favor, do an analysis, do a quick audit of the cost of doing nothing in your life and in your business and relationships.

And sometimes it is going to be less money. I’m going to say that right now because sometimes you audit something else and it does mean you make less money, but you gain sanity, gain time, you gain all these things that make it worth it.

Or you gain, you know, the. And that you used to invest in a different money making venture like there’s all sorts again.

It’s a give and take. It’s a sacrifice. It’s figuring out. It’s individual to what your goals are and what you’re looking for in life and business.

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Absolutely. We love this. And soon you’ll be hearing more interviews coming out. We know we’ve done a big season of us because we’ve been together.

It’s been lovely. And we’ll have some people. So if you know of someone who should be on the pursuit of badasserie and you want to hear more about them, tag them.

Let us know. We’d love to know who you want to hear. Yeah. Yeah. We look. Well, until next time, get after it.