Habits

We all have habits, some are good habits, some not so good. Habits are part of our behavior in all the areas of our life. Some people are very organized, Take Jess for instance, her work papers and planner… are so organized and color coded! It seems to come easy to her when it comes to important items like work. She started this habit very young as a student and has carried this habit into adulthood. I on the other hand, really must focus on keeping myself somewhat organized. I was never an organized student, well compared to my kid. But at the same time, I know it’s a “weak” spot for me so I do what I can to make small positive changes to be better organized.  This is an issue I could easily talk to a stranger about, and they would be happy to make suggestions and share their organizational skills or lack of them as well…

When it comes to our money habits. We NEVER want to talk about them. Nope, we don’t want to share that stuff! We all have money habits, again some good, some not so good. Let’s be realistic, we can’t fix all our bad money habits overnight, and maybe we don’t have to fix all of them? Maybe some are not that bad?  But I am guessing we secretly have some things we do repeatedly, that we say to ourselves, why do I do this to myself. 

In today’s world with so much online banking and automation that we can do, some of these bad habits might be easier than we think to break. To really start to make changes, you need to be honest with yourself as to what is a problem.  Write it down! Put it on paper and look at IT! Just ONE problem, not all or many of them if there is a list… Own it! Then write out the steps you need to take to make this a bad habit you no longer have.  Maybe you share your bad habit you are trying to break with someone you know will emotionally support you. That might be a spouse, a good friend, a co-worker.

Setting a goal is easy, executing it, not always as easy.  Maybe just saying the habit out load to someone and talking about it will be the biggest step. After that it might get easier to mentally tackle the habit. Good luck, stay focused and you got this!