{"id":1205,"date":"2014-10-14T12:25:45","date_gmt":"2014-10-14T17:25:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1205"},"modified":"2014-10-15T08:25:42","modified_gmt":"2014-10-15T13:25:42","slug":"sacrifice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/?p=1205","title":{"rendered":"Sacrifice"},"content":{"rendered":"\"sacrifice<\/a>\n

Now here is a fun topic! \u00a0Sacrifice.<\/p>\n

Eww! \u00a0It conjures up all sorts of horrible imagery. \u00a0Not something you’d raise your hand and volunteer for, right? \u00a0Except but of course we do. \u00a0Sacrifice is as fundamental to life as air and water, breath and blood.<\/p>\n

We sacrifice things every day. \u00a0We just don’t realize it.<\/p>\n

What prompts a post on sacrifice? \u00a0Well, it has something to do with the Dutch.<\/p>\n

When you hear the word “sacrifice”, Holland may not be the first country that comes to mind. \u00a0But yesterday I read an article in the New York Times<\/a> on the Dutch pension plans. \u00a0It seems that unlike U.S. pension plans (a) Dutch pension plans still exist; and (b) they are not only solvent, but financially rock solid.<\/p>\n

Why? \u00a0In a word: \u00a0sacrifice.<\/p>\n

Seems that following the financial crisis of ’08 the Dutch looked at the financials of their retirement programs and determined that the only real way of making things work moving forward was to have people contribute more and have plans pay out less. \u00a0Oh, and they refused to do any of that funny accounting stuff and base assets on what they “might” be in the future. \u00a0People made sacrifices (including my in-laws who are currently on Dutch retirement programs). \u00a0It wasn’t easy. \u00a0People complained. \u00a0It was controversial. \u00a0Some of the sacrifices hurt. \u00a0But they made them. \u00a0And the result is that the retirement plans for the next generation are preserved.<\/p>\n

Yesterday I spent time with my daughter (who is half-Dutch!), her husband and their three boys. \u00a0My daughter told me of some of the sacrifices they are having to make in order to raise their family as they want to. \u00a0Some budget cuts. \u00a0Some lifestyle changes. \u00a0But things you give up for a much greater good.<\/p>\n

You may not realize it but you make sacrifices every day. \u00a0They can be “good” ones or they can be “bad” ones. \u00a0They can be sacrifices that cut corners, skip steps, and achieve “quick wins.” \u00a0Or they can be sacrifices that enable you, over time, to achieve a higher goal.<\/p>\n

Too often we make stupid sacrifices. \u00a0For example, we sacrifice our\u00a0health by consuming yummy but unhealthy foods. \u00a0Or we sacrifice the opportunity to help others by focusing just on taking care of ourselves. \u00a0 Or we sacrifice relationships by spending all our\u00a0time working and making money.<\/p>\n

It doesn’t have to be this way. \u00a0We can be smart about our sacrifices. \u00a0We sacrifice\u00a0our own ideological rigidity for the cause of getting along with others.\u00a0 We can sacrifice a bit of low priced carbon for the sake of the environment. \u00a0We can sacrifice time in front of a screen, to spend time with someone who could use a listening ear and a word of encouragement.<\/p>\n

So let’s embrace sacrifice! \u00a0In doing so we are more aware, more conscious and more in tune with ourselves and each other. \u00a0And when the consequences of our sacrifices become manifest, we won’t be surprised, only hopeful that those sacrifices were worth it all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now here is a fun topic! \u00a0Sacrifice. Eww! \u00a0It conjures up all sorts of horrible imagery. \u00a0Not something you’d raise your hand and volunteer for, right? \u00a0Except but of course we do. \u00a0Sacrifice is as fundamental to life as air and water, breath and blood. We sacrifice things every day. \u00a0We just don’t realize it.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[119],"tags":[128,6,127],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1205"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1213,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1205\/revisions\/1213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jerrysjuicebar.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}