How to Calculate the Value of Your Health + Simple Trick to Increase the Worth
Today we’re going to discuss value and worth and how you’re perception of both may be limiting you from the health and life you desire.
Yesterday I went to see my dentist to fix an issue I was having with one of my teeth. While repairing the the partially chipped filling, she asked me why I still had not gotten an implant to replace the molar extracted in 2014.
I really couldn't answer because I had all kinds of shit in my mouth - including that little suction tool and a gentle stream of water. So instead I smiled, indicating my attention.
She explained the effects of having a missing tooth - the impaired ability to masticate food, the constant shifting and misaligning of teeth, gum erosion as teeth attempt to grow to meet missing surfaces, TMJ, all kinds of effects I never had considered.
Her case was tight, she made sense and I finally realized both the short and long term costs of my indifference to this matter.
When I got up to the front desk they printed out an estimate for the implant and all the associated appointments and work - $4244.
“Holy Shit, that’s a lot of money for one tooth”
“Yeah, but you’ll have it for the rest of your life” replied the assistant.
Still though, while driving home, I pondered, “Is a single tooth worth $4244?”
I realized that I’m not just buying a tooth, I’m buying the benefits that result from having that tooth.
Is chewing comfortably on the right side of my mouth for the first time in over two years worth $4244?
Is not having to floss every time I eat worth $4244?
Is not having to think about chewing every time I chew worth $4244?
Each of the above questions has an answer and what’s important is to realize that who answers the question determines the actual answer.
For me, each of these questions was a no, not for $4250, but for someone else the answer might have been a straightforward yes.
My mom called her oral surgeon. He said he could do the same procedure for $2200.
For me it's not worth $4250, at least not yet, but for $2200, HELL YES!
You see, it’s not that the process, operation, procedure or tooth has some inherent and intrinsic value. You and I as the consumers determine what this object/experience is worth to us - whether we’re willing to pay the stated price for what we want or believe we need.
Maybe there’s a dentist out there who charges $8500 for the same implant. Though definitely not worth $8500 to me, for someone else it may be worth $8500. It simply depends on the person.
Just because some people are a no at a designated price, does not mean that everyone is a no at that price.
So why buy an implant for $4250 when you can get one for $2200?
Well, here’s what I forgot to mention.
While laying back in the dental chair, I had a pillow under my neck, essential oils burning next to me, a ceiling that literally looked like a cloudy blue sky, and I was given a warm towel scented with lavender to wash my face after the work was completed.
I sat on a toilet in a regal bathroom, while listening to the kind of classical music you would never hear in an elevator. I had tea in the office and bullshitted with the staff for about 20 minutes.
I even remarked to my dentist, “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m actually excited to come here, to come to the dentist.”
I may be paying more, but in this case I’m paying for an experience.
So why buy an implant for $8500 when you can get one for $2200?
Assuming all variables are equal, which experience do you want?
The $8500 or the $2200 one?
If the experiences are the same, then the answer is obvious.
As irrational as it may seem, some will simply say yes to the $8500 implant over the $2200, because true or not, “you get what you pay for” which as experience has taught me is sometimes true.
SO, LET’S PLAY WITH THIS A BIT, BECAUSE IT APPLIES DIRECTLY TO BOTH YOUR HEALTH AND YOUR LIFE.
I invite you to take out a yellow pad and answer the following questions. I mean why not? Yellow pads are fun.
- What do you want with regards to your health?
- Why do you want that?
- Why else do you want that?
- How much is what you want worth to you in dollars?
A few years ago a man came to me who’s entire body was essentially one large rash. He sought a solution, but the problem was, aside from a cortisol injection, his doctors had no answers.
I asked him why he wanted to be free of this ‘full body rash’.
He quickly began listing reasons - so he could sleep comfortably at night, so he could go out with his friends, so he could focus on the his life again, so women wouldn’t judge him, so he didn’t have to worry, so he could feel good again in his body, etc.
If I had the power to go back in time I would have asked him this.
“How much is it worth to you to be living a life where you’re no longer worried about your health? A life where woman don’t judge you, where friends don’t judge you and if they do, you don’t give a shit.
How much is it worth to you to sleep like a baby again, no longer feeling the discomfort of every single movement?
How much is it worth to you to no longer have to constantly feel apprehensive and anxious as you await your next flare up?
How much is it worth to you to be able to give your full attention to the people you serve at your work? (Joe’s heart is huge and he loves helping people via his work)
"How much will you pay to be free of this health challenge!?...Here’s a blank check, fill it in for me.
Would you pay...
$100
$500
$2100
$8900
$23,300
$37,700
I met with Joe several times over the course of two months.
I helped him break free of his chronic patterns of thought relative to the rash, I helped him to let go of the need to be diagnosed and instead opened him to see what he really had, a symptom.
In a simple and logical way I explained how the human body works and how his symptom had manifest.
We discussed the parameters by which healing happens and how to use those variables to one’s advantage.
More importantly I worked with him to design a highly strategic action plan that target and address the causative factors, which were resulting in his symptom.
Finally, I got in his face, in a good way. I asked him, just as I’ve asked you,
“What do you want!?”
Do you want to be free of this or do you want to continue suffering?!
Joe wanted to be free and so he choose to be free.
He took concordant actions and transformed who he was being, immediately. Several days later, his rash was gone.
Unfortunately I can't remind time, so I’ll never know how much it was truly worth to Joe to be free of his health challenge.
At the time, I told him I charge $100/session, we had about 5 sessions, so it was worth at least $500 to him. How can I know though that it wasn’t worth $2100 or $3400 to him or $19000?
For several weeks Joe randomly left $100 bills in my mailbox or if I saw him at Whole Foods, he would slip a $100 bill into my pocket, insisting I take it for what I did for him - he was so grateful this was the least he could do.
Clearly the new life that Joe gained access to, one where he was free of this health challenge, was worth far more than the $500 he initially paid me.
Let's play for a minute.
Imagine there is a genie who could give you whatever you ask for. All that is required of you besides asking, is to pay him what you feel that wish is worth. Also imagine that you have any amount of money available to you that you need - money is not a limiter.
How much would you pay that genie today to be completely free of the symptoms that plague you?
How much would you pay that genie today, to be living the life you would be living once free of those symptoms?
Let’s ratchet this up.
Imagine you knew the precise day you were going to die and it was far sooner than you initially thought, it was one week away.
Knowing this, how much would you pay that genie now, to be completely free of the symptoms that plague you?
How much would you give the genie to be living your dream life now, given that you know you have far less time to live then you had assumed?
Now how much is what you want worth to you?
See, no longer do I charge for number of sessions, length of sessions, recordings, workbooks, etc.
My prices, which vary anywhere from $3,000 - $30,000 depending on various factors, is simply a number chosen to represent the worth of one’s dreams.
The product I ‘sell’ is the vision you hold for your life and who am I to say how much that is worth to you. It's either a yes or a no, just like the $4250 implant.
For some it’s worth $100 and for others (which I anticipate soon meeting) their dream and their vision is worth $100,000, if not more.
Yesterday I spent two hours on the phone with a woman, giving her the experience of the work I do. At the end of the session she asked what it might look like for us to work together. Knowing I could support her to create what she desired, I made a $4,000 proposal. Understandably so, she thought it was expensive.
So, here’s the questions that popped into my head when I was laying in bed.
Which is more expensive $4,250 for a single tooth or $4,000 to create a dream that’s been on pause for 28 years?
Here’s what I know to be true via direct experience.
The higher is the value of what you desire, the greater are the chances of you actually doing what is required to create it.
If being free of HIV is your dream, but it’s only worth $100 to you, how hard are you going to try to create a you that is free of that diagnosis?
Maybe you buy a few books on alternative healing, you buy some Vitamin C & D supplements at Walgreens or you start to crowdfund and invest $100 towards an experimental medication.
On the other hand, lets say you decide that being free of HIV is worth $100,000 - that is, you’re willing to spend $100,000 to be free of it. You hire a personal detoxification specialist, coach and cheerleader named Ken.
You also sell your shit and move into Loren Lockman’s fasting center in the tropics for an indefinite period of time so you can fast and surround yourself with like minded individuals who see you as if you’re already healed.
You also decide to visit John of God in Brazil for a month and you plan a trip to China to visit with a team of the world's best Medical Chi Gong Practitioners.
Sounds like you're pretty serious.
I know I know. Someone somewhere is shouting, “but not all of us have $100,000!”
My response?
Doesn’t matter, fuck the money.
First decide how much your desire is worth to you and then let the ‘how’ work itself out. If you want what you say you want, then you’ll do what’s required, with the help of some universal forces, to create the resources required.
So, in reality, regardless of how much you have in your bank account, it would benefit you to increase the worth of what you desire, in the case of my readers, to increase the worth of being free of your symptoms and the life that would grant you access to.
Why? Well, because the more it’s worth to you, the more likely you will take action and action is the means by which we create.
As I see it there are two primary ways to increase the worth of what you desire. So when that genie asks you to pay up, rather than giving $100, you can genuinely and wholeheartedly give $1,000,000.
#1 - Increase the need
- Two hours before the planes crashed into the twin towers on 9/11, how much was a ladder worth to the many individuals who ultimately jumped to escape burning alive?
- Thirty minutes after the planes crashed into the towers, how much was a ladder worth to these same individuals?
Need and Worth are proportional as the diagram depicts.
#2 - Increase the want
- List 3 ways that having a body free of symptoms would improve your life.
- List 30 ways that having body free of symptoms would benefit your life.
- List 300 ways…
Want and Worth are proportional as the diagram again depicts
With little to no clarity, of course what you want isn’t worth very much to you, of course the amount you’re willing to invest is minimal, how could it be any other way?
Fortunately you can increase the worth of what you desire without increasing the need, simply by increasing the want.
By listing and then envisioning with extreme detail, how the attainment of your vision would improve, upgrade and blow your fucking life up in beautiful ways, you increase the worth of that life.
As you get more and more clear on why you want what you say you want, as you begin to see the far reaching consequences of realizing your desires, the more your vision will be worth to you, the more you’ll invest and the more likely you'll be to create it.
The probability of you actualizing your desires is directly proportional to the value you assign to those desires and you have the power to substantially increase the worth of your desires - thus increasing the likelihood you’ll actually create what you want.
There are two paths to get what you want - the path of need and the path of want.
You can need something so bad that you’ll do whatever is required for however long is required to acquire it or you can want something so bad that you’ll do whatever is required for however long is required.
Personally I find more joy not in working with someone because they need what they want, but because they want what they want.
Remind yourself why you want to be free of the symptoms ailing you and the game changes.
For fun, I'm going to host a google hangout the last week of October on this topic. To join and be notified of this event, please hit the subscribe button below. (I'll also add you to my weekly newsletter). [[no longer active]]