Feeling a Little Like John Kerry
June 10, 2010 2 Comments
I’m the type of person that when I make up my mind, I stick to the plan. Lately, though, this hasn’t been the case. I’ve struggled to stick to spending plans, failed to keep a balanced budget and have been indecisive about whether to save money or pay down debt. Cue the Swift Boat Veterans!
Even more than you’re probably sick of hearing about my struggle with my spending and the battle to balance savings and debt repayment, I’m sick of struggling to reach a solution to the problems. It is frustrating to continually fail at reaching my spending goals and even more troubling to realize that what had been a surplus at the beginning of the year has become a deficit.
Exposing these challenges fills me with fear and discomfort. It is a lot more fun to share the accomplishments, the highlights of life and inspirational stories. It isn’t as enjoyable to broadcast my weaknesses and uncertainties and I don’t like sharing my insecurities and self-doubt. I don’t like it but I want you to know that I struggle with the same challenges as anyone and I want you to realize that doing the right thing isn’t always the easiest.
It is a battle always in perpetuity.
I will continue to struggle and fight these battles so that when I come out at the end of all of this, I will have the comfort of knowing that I have fought to do the right thing the entire time. In the process surely I will make mistakes and maybe even fail. I will be wrong and do stupid things at times. I will satisfy my impulses one day and regret the decision the next.
Despite all of this, there is an end to the war and it isn’t over until I have won. It isn’t over until I have defeated my enemy; debt. It isn’t over until I am consistently reaching my savings and retirement goals. This battle cannot be lost until I choose to give up and accept defeat and as much as I may vacillate from time to time, I will persist and I will win.
We must fight the battles in our lives that are worthy of fighting and realize that defeat only happens if we make that choice.
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Check out Pop Economics’ Carnival of Personal Finance #261 which featured this Hundred Goals’ article!!!
About Steven
at least you’re admitting that you’re having difficulty – It takes so much to keep focus for that long. I’ve been doing to for almost 12 month (!) and I’m just beginning to see progress (I paid off my last credit card last month). If you’re having significant trouble staying with your spending plans, they may need to be adjusted, but they may not. If it’s truly a lack of focus (as I get from your post) you may want to try to focus on your plugging your slip-ups.
For example, when I make 1 mistake, and go over budget somewhere, I just to just say “well, hell with the whole thing, it’s not working anyway” and let the rest of it go down the chute with it.
Consider trying to stop yourself at 1 slip-up and stopping the spiral.
Good Luck.
I’m working on stopping the spiral. I haven’t said “the hell with it” yet and don’t intend to. It can just be frustrating when it feels like I am consistently failing at the things I set out to accomplish. I’ll keep working at it, I’m not the type of person who gives up easily!