Decide
Honestly; when the year started, I had small goals in mind. Last year, was a year of waiting and intense rest. Growth or rapid movement in my life caused sheer exhaustion. I’d always say, “God’s doing something. Just not sure what”.
As the year began I knew in the area of both fitness and finances, I was putting in the work externally but not doing what needed to be done internally. I was in the gym 6 days a week but didn’t eat to reflect those hours. I was under financial coaching but wasn’t putting in the practical skills to see change. They say, insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. It’s safe to say; ya girl was living insane.
In the past, I’ve steered clear of discussing these types of topics on social media. I’m not an expert, I don’t even pretend to be and most days, I’m just doing the best I can with what I’ve got.
I’ve begun to realize we only know what we know and sometimes, we just don’t know. So, I’m gonna do my best to share more about what I’m learning in real life. Different things that are working whether it be faith, fitness, work, writing, money, mentoring, traveling, or all things coffee. I’m hoping to share a lot of failure to launch stories and a handful of wins.
But for today, here’s something: decide before you draft.
Budgets are hard for me. I feel like I’m always losing track of what went where or forgetting why I spent the money in the first place. In 28 days I’ve been able to pay off 1 credit card and have a set plan including the minimum amount I will need per week to pay off the next.
In the past, I’d pay my credit card with what was left from the week. Which let’s be honest; was barely anything. Rearranging my priorities to give, save, pay and THEN spend forced me to ask three questions before checking out.
Had my giving, saving, and paying been taken care of?
Was I on track for the week?
Could I really afford this?
For me, knowing the interest on every debt including credit cards was a game changer. One card that I’ve had for 3 years I was paying 18% interest on and NO, it wasn’t paid off on time. YIKES!
Also, if you find yourself putting in the work externally and not doing the work internally, i want to challenge you to put in the work whole heartedly for 30 days. You don’t need to announce it to the world (seriously, don’t put extra pressure on yourself to perform) and you don’t need to buy a bunch of new software to give it a go. Just commit to 30 days of putting in the same work internally as you are externally and see what happens.
Hope this helps someone else like its helped me! Happy Monday!