Yesterday was Tax Day in the U.S.
We know taxes are necessary, and we like to complain about them to some degree. But the taxes that hamper us most aren’t financial, and many are voluntary.
Consider the fear tax. It’s exacted every time we limit our opportunity due to fear of something completely beyond our control.
We pay worry tax whenever we waste time and energy (and lose sleep) worrying about stuff that likely won’t happen, isn’t all that important, or we can’t control anyway.
The critic tax is a good one. Someone you don’t know, or whose opinion you don’t especially value, criticizes you. Instead of simply ignoring, you invest emotional energy in an almost-certainly-doomed-to-fail attempt to set the record straight.
How about the highly-popular convenience tax? We pay that tax each time we refuse to step out of our comfort zone or to have our wants interrupted by the needs of others. We pay it when we’re “too busy” to serve or when we’re “just not comfortable around those sorts of people.”
There are lots of others. We pay taxes for lack of trust, lack of faith, lack of hope. We pay an enormous tax when we fail to love and accept love.
These taxes seem invisible. Nobody sends a bill, but we pay a high cost. Sadly, this cost is much like the withholding on a paycheck–if you don’t pay attention, you might be unaware you’re even paying.
What’s more, it’s all voluntary. We can stop any time.
Perhaps instead of griping about the financial taxes I pay, I’d do better to reduce the crippling voluntary taxes that suck my time, energy, emotion, and faith away from the stuff that matters.
What kind of hidden, voluntary tax do you pay? What can you do to reduce the cost?
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