When you’re wanting to change behavior, establish a new habit, etc…sometimes you need to give some unsustainable effort in order to move the effort needle from inaction to sustainable action.
When you’re wanting to change behavior, establish a new habit, etc…sometimes you need to give some unsustainable effort in order to move the effort needle from inaction to sustainable action.
Amen, Jesse. So often we hear about “baby steps” or “eating an elephant one bite at a time.” Yes, in the long run, these are sustainable ways of accomplishing a goal but it is not so often said (and thank you for saying it now!) that sometimes you just have to FLING HEADLONG into a major sprint to crest a milestone that has dogged you from getting beyond, unless you suck it up and DO IT.
Having taken 12 years to climb out of $150K of student loan debt (think twice about going to medical school at age 38 :-)) I learned an awful lot along the way about what constitutes momentum (and discipline). The real truth was it *did* take some sacrificial intervals periodically where I absolutely had to push myself for a little while to make my next debt reduction goal (yes, that meant eating cereal for dinner the last day or two of the month if it meant I could put another $20 towards debt to get it under XX,000 – and initially under XXX,000). But when I did this, I not only felt tremendous pride getting past the goalpost, I found that it became easier and easier to stop WANTING stuff and to start evaluating the value of whether or not I ought to spend TIME on acquiring stuff. I became far more consciously and naturally frugal, and even better, found that I was really deeply enjoying what I chose to acquire because it had real value to me. And all because I was willing to put in the sweat of the periodic major pushes. They indeed can’t be sustained, but their momentum-building benefit causes the ultimate fabulous outcome, of, say, $150,000 PAID BACK, with other money also having been accrued in savings along the way, and a very contented person who leads her money rather than is led by it. Yay for unsustainability!
Thank you Jesse. WIth this WBW video and the Staying on Track webinar from Monday night I am really motivated to push ahead with re-building the habit of budgeting. I was very good about budgeting while we were getting out of debt. But shortly after we paid off the last CC our youngest son was diagnosed with cancer. Since we already had been living beneath our means for years this medical issue was not the financial disaster it could have been. Now – two years later – our son is well [thankfully]. I am ready to get back on track with a solid budget and start making real financial goals again. We are preparing to add on to our house – but not borrow any money. Thank you for this encouragement today!
Hi Jesse,
Getting motivated with your excellent WBW talks. My WBW suggestion is to cover the issue of debt accounts. I have an equity credit line that (in the past) I’ve dipped into when necessary. While I’m paying it off now, it will likely be used in the near future to help with kids’ college expenses, so I feel like I need to track its cash flows. The mixing of debt payoff and debt addition is a bit confusing – especially when trying to reconcile bank statements and YNAB balances.
Thanks,
Mark
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