It was the cost of her craft.

There’s a story behind that.

This is your daily message from Chad number 1061 to upgrade your mental game today by telling yourself a better story, because the most important story you hear is the story you tell yourself. And this message is dedicated to Scott and Natalie Manke.

Here’s the upgrade: You think the cost is too high, but upgraded thinking knows it all depends on the value of the pursuit.

Here’s the story.

Her name is Angel Fux. She’s a Swiss astro photographer, which means she takes pictures of the sky, usually at high altitudes. This past March a helicopter dropped her on a summit near the Matterhorn near the border of Italy and Switzerland, almost 14,000 feet up. She spent the night there in a tent. Temperatures hit 28 below zero.

She was roped to the tent. Not for fun. The snow ledges around her would collapse if she stepped wrong. Any unroped step up was a death wish. The photo would be a composite of the Milky Way Galaxy in a double arch. In the first half of the night the first arch can be seen and in the second half of the night, the second.

The wind picked up after 11 p.m. The part many don’t know is in 2021, at a little lower elevation of that same Matterhorn, Angel was caught in 100 mile-an-hour winds, trying to get the same picture. She says the sound of a tent in that kind of wind is not something you forget. So when the gusts started building, her body remembered. She wrote, “My nights were restless and full of the kind of low-level dread. The anticipation alone was exhausting.”

After a long, dark night she got her shot. But she didn’t know all she had until she got home. She had 300 gigabytes of data and spent 40 hours editing. For one photograph. But as Fux reviewed the images, she noticed a third arch, which didn’t belong to the Milky Way Galaxy. It is caused by sunlight backscattering off interplanetary dust. So the final composite is a triple arch of starlight against black space.

Two years of planning. A helicopter ride into thin air. A night roped to a tent at 28 below. Forty hours of editing. The result is a rare glimpse of the universe. Angel knew the cost was high (literally), but it was a price she was willing to pay.

The better story to tell yourself is, “I’m willing to pay what it costs.” If you’ve been quietly thinking the price is too high, what is the value of what you’re doing. I was thinking of the art seller Joseph Duveen. The way he would frame pieces of art is when you pay high for the priceless, you’re getting it cheap. Your dream has a price tag on it. Your marriage, your sobriety, your business, your healing, your calling. There is a number printed on it, but does it really matter when the value is priceless?

Tell me a story of what you’re willing to pay to fromchadsmith@gmail.com. Send someone a text and ask them, “What’s the one thing in your life right now that’s worth the cost?” You can get a free copy of my book, The Most Powerful Story in the World, by going to fromchad.gumroad.com. The transcript of this message and hundreds of others are always available at www.fromchad.com.