What do January Diets, Fitness Programs and Financial Plans have in Common?
January 17, 2016 10:36 amThey all leave you feeling a little spent!!!
Pun intended!! A barrage of recent holiday festivities lead to lots of excuses to eat, be merry and spend money. We then realize we are out of our ordinary eating habits, our ordinary workout habits and our ordinary spending habits.
So with the start of a new year, we try to (re)establish our new plans! But what stops us?
· I’m too busy to invest the time/effort.
· It’s too expensive to follow the plan.
· I’ll start it later when things slow down.
· I deserve a treat/break!!
· Nothing will help me!!
Each of the above excuses equally apply to diets, fitness and financial plans. One of the major reasons I suspect is that our goals are too big or too vague.
“I’d like to lose 20 pounds” could easily translate into “I’d like to reduce my wine, soda pop, or desert to once a week”, “I’d like to power walk 20 minutes a day”, and “I’d like to lose up to 2 pounds a week”. Don’t even mention the 20 pounds – to me it’s a motivation killer. Focus only on the small goals.
For financial planning, take a similar approach. “I want to plan for my retirement” should be broken into “Let’s start contributing $x monthly to my RRSP or TFSA”. The latter goal may not allow you to retire tomorrow, but it is as step in the right direction.
Question: How do you eat an elephant?
Answer: One bite at a time.
Revised Answer: Stop trying to eat an elephant!!! Focus on something much smaller, like a smidgeon of pigeon!!!
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This post was written by Marco Faccone