or
to make progress in one area, you have to 'neglect' another.

in order to proceed you must concede ground on some principals.

To gain ground - move ahead
Make concessions - to condede, give up, make allowances for, admit

For example..if your sole goal is to be

a full-time freelance translator, you might have to forego free weekends.

To achieve a sole goal, periphery matters might have to be conceded.

To meet an order, overtime might have to be worked..

etc

HTH!

If this is in the context of negotiating an agreement or concluding a transaction, it means that you need to give something (persumably which is less important to you) in order to gain something else in return.

If the context is in making progress in developement, production, growth, etc., it means that you have to save your resources for your more important goals at the expense of the less important or less strategic ones. The famous matrix of "cost, time, and functionality" is a good example here, where you pick one or two out of the three depending on what you want and what is available to you.

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Note added at 9 mins (2004-01-12 18:38:33 GMT)
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I meant \"to give *up* something\"

Sorry for the other typos too.