Do you ever feel like you’re slipping?
Slipping back into bad habits? Slipping back into things that are easy even though they’re exactly what you’ve trained yourself against?
Well that’s me lately.
Minimalism? Yea, that’s slipping.
RIE Parenting? Yup, definitely slipping as we enter the year of 4.
Baby Steps? Yup, definitely feel myself slipping back into my old spending habits.
The thing is, we’re tired. And each thing we strive to work towards is hard to do. It takes effort each day to comply with the rules we’ve set for ourselves to comply with the lifestyle of minimalism, for example. Staying grateful for each thing we already have so to resist the impulses to buy everything we find cute or convenient in the moment is hard.
We have to make an effort to think about what that purchase will look like a month from now, and make an effort in remembering our Baby Steps progress and listen do a Dave Pod to curb our desires and snap us out of it.
And when we really want to talk to our children like we would an old friend when they’re being an asshole we have to remember that they’re a child. We have to make an effort to take a deep breath and “RIE” the situation back to sanity.
And do we slip? Absolutely. We’re human after all. But as long as we continue to self correct, and continue to try, we can’t be too hard on ourselves for the slipping that is bound to happen.
We also need to establish some rewards for our efforts. Allow ourselves a cup of coffee every once in a while and a nice shirt if that’s what brings us joy for a minute. If you’ve been 80%/ 20% I’d say that’s a win. Because we’re not robots. So live, and live with some grace and thank yourself for trying. And keep at it. We’ll get there. We just need to remember our end goal.
Write it down. Make it tangible. If we see it, we can visualize it each day and be motivated by it.
Are you on a debt snowball journey? Write that down. Put it on the refrigerator. Mark down your progress each month so you see it go down. Seeing the progress as a tangible object that you can touch makes it real. Pick an amount for a celebration. Nothing major, just a dinner, or a cup of coffee. So that when you get to that goal, you go get yourself a cup of coffee. Or give yourself a budget of $30 to go get whatever you want, guilt free. Build in those victories to keep you motivated and inspired.
Like an award chart that we provide our kids for good behavior, we need something just the same. We as humans crave to be recognized. So go recognize yourself for good behavior! You deserve it. And I’ve heard, positive reinforcement works! You’ll likely be good for longer if you see that goal in sight.
Honey Sunny Days 