27 Apr Celebrate Your Small Victories
Managing Your Cash Sounds Easy
Successfully using CashMap’s Line of Credit means writing down your goals, sticking to your budget and, keeping your money working for you 24/7. This might sound simple; however, few of us do it.
Vicious Cycle
We start with good intentions, get distracted, fail, get discouraged and then give up. The cycle can be similar to New Year’s resolutions, we start with good intentions, make a few seemingly insignificant victories, beat ourselves up and then ask ourselves the question, ‘Why bother?’
Break the Cycle!
This past week I was asked to help someone get back on their feet. They didn’t have a budget, savings and were discouraged. During our conversation, I was repeatedly told about their past mistakes. They had made dramatic changes in their diet, their health had improved and they had begun reducing their spending.
She was emphasizing her past mistakes and wasn’t celebrating her victories. Her victories were huge! What’s more important than good health?
Celebration is a part of life. We know this but we all too often forget it. Celebrations are frequently limited to birthdays, anniversaries, graduations and weddings. Certainly these are important milestones in life; however, if important milestones are achieved by cumulative small achievements shouldn’t we celebrate our small achievements?
When my children were young, they played violin and piano. They dreaded recitals. They saw no value in all the preparation. They were entitled to their opinion; however, that didn’t change our expectation of preparation or performance. My wife and I knew that there was only one way to prepare – practice. They practiced Sunday through Thursday. Each piece started out sounding rough and progressively sounded better. With practice, the mistakes lessened. Without fail, each of our children performed wonderfully at their recital. After each recital, we celebrated! With each new piece, their skills improved and they saw the benefits of practicing. They looked forward to celebrating.
Celebrate with Your Accountability Partner
Remember, failure is an opportunity to grow. We are given an opportunity to review why we did what we did and ask ourselves the questions, ‘How might I have made a different decision and what small step do I need to take to get what I want?’
We can give a friend or our spouse the freedom to hold us accountability. By giving them permission, we won’t see their help as nagging. Our accountability partner is helping us break the cycle. When we successfully take that small step, our accountability partner can join us in celebrating our victory. Repeated victories create new habits.
Victories enable us to confidently define our next challenge. The first step has been made to achieve our goal. We’re one step closer!
To learn more visit www.cashmapapp.com or visit Apple’s iTunes Store by clicking on the following link: iTunes Download.
Thanks for joining me. I’d love to hear from you. Please send your questions, topics or suggestions to dennis@cashmapconsulting.com. You can also follow me on twitter at cash_map.
No Comments