So, you become determined to put a stop to all of it, to push yourself, to not let things continue this way. You tell yourself that things have to change. Things have to get better, so you start drawing up a plan on how to tackle things. You take note of all you have been doing wrong all this time, like spending when you don't have the money to pay for it, spending without a budget first in place, being generous without a plan, not saving even if only a tiny little bit and so on. You take note also of all you have done right (if any) so that you know what good to continue with. You know, do a total life makeover. A journey to salvage your future.
The road you have to travel to put things right appears really dreary but a helpless person has to choose the only way out available, which is to travel that uninviting road. Besides, what does a drowning person have to loose? And then, you start.... .
After a few tries, you see some positive results and you can see things beginning to look up. You have never had things this good in your life prior to this moment. You begin to realize that there is indeed a life outside of debts and chaotic finances. You start putting little cash away for savings. You look at your bank statements once a while and see the numbers stacking up. You no longer have that feeling of hopelessness weighing heavy on your spirit. Your financial records are beginning to take shape for the better, you think you are now more prudent. Oh life is getting to be so good! You think you are disciplined enough.
Then, some way down the line, months after, maybe years even, you get confident that you are doing well and decide to trash your deliberate planning, confident that you should by now know what to do without the notebooks and planners anymore. I mean, it's now a no brainer right? WRONG!
I look overwhelmed at the down turn of things in my life. Didn't I begin a successful total makeover? How did things go south again?
After a few tries, you see some positive results and you can see things beginning to look up. You have never had things this good in your life prior to this moment. You begin to realize that there is indeed a life outside of debts and chaotic finances. You start putting little cash away for savings. You look at your bank statements once a while and see the numbers stacking up. You no longer have that feeling of hopelessness weighing heavy on your spirit. Your financial records are beginning to take shape for the better, you think you are now more prudent. Oh life is getting to be so good! You think you are disciplined enough.
Then, some way down the line, months after, maybe years even, you get confident that you are doing well and decide to trash your deliberate planning, confident that you should by now know what to do without the notebooks and planners anymore. I mean, it's now a no brainer right? WRONG!
I look overwhelmed at the down turn of things in my life. Didn't I begin a successful total makeover? How did things go south again?
Well, I will have you know that without consistent, deliberate planning, there is a chance of a relapse happening which if not caught early can plunge you way back and down the tunnel of debts, disorganization etc than even before, sometimes.
That happened to me. The moment I stopped focusing on what to do correctly because I thought I now understood how it all works, I found myself back beyond square one. Sadly I was there before I realized just what had happened to me.
I got lazy but gave it a name; "I know it all now". I felt I now had the hang of it and so I didn't need all the note taking, budget preparation, counting cash into envelopes and what not. Please, it is never old to practice the envelope system if that is effective in keeping track for you.
Notice that I deliberately said the envelope system. This is because there are recent modifications to the envelope system now and they are not all cash based. There is now besides the cash envelopes, cashless envelopes, prepaid card/debit cards envelopes etc. If you study their purpose, you might find that the ideology is almost all the same. People adopt the one they think is more practical based on their environment or so, but this is a topic I will address in another post.
Anyway, I stopped doing all the things I had started doing right and soon I realized that those things I now took for granted had slipped completely away from my routine and before you know it; I had relapsed in the state of my finances. Shockingly, as soon as I realized what was happening, I told myself I would correct my mistakes but I had lost the drive. I knew what to do but was just too lazy to act on it. I would say things like "Oh its the end of the month now, time to draw up a budget" but wouldn't act on it. I would deceive myself by taking notes of the expenses that I had made as the month began, promising myself that I would soon draw up my budget and then factor in the expenses already made.
Breaking news! It never happened.
So it is a great idea to discipline yourself to be consistent on your journey to a better life for yourself. Especially if you have observed that you have a weakness of procrastinating. Never take it for granted that a relapse is impossible. It is possible but only if you let it.
As you strive to build your financial muscle, determine to consciously abstain from any situation that would make your efforts so far be for nothing.
And, yes a relapse can definitely happen!