Many of us have goals we set before us. They can be big goals like going back to school for a new degree or smaller goals like vacuuming certain room(s) of the house over a weekend. Either way we set things before us that we strive toward.
In fact, our well being is somewhat determined by what we are striving to achieve.
For instance, you may be trying to achieve a promotion at your place of employment. To accomplish this, you start finding out what the expectations of the job you wish to attain are. Then you start adopting that work as if you already had the job. You likely won't land it next week, however, you are taking intentional steps in the direction of that next goal. Doing so gives you a greater purpose and helps you feel better about yourself and what you are doing.
If you don't have that next goal, then all of the little distractions around you become more insistent. Instead of intentionally tackling new challenges, you may settle into the comfort of your current job. You can find yourself spinning around, attending to all the little distractions (coffee talk, web surfing, etc.) around you in your current spot and making no progress forward.
We have similar issues moving forward with our money goals. Many of us live paycheck to paycheck, thus it is difficult to look ahead to a larger goal. Thus, all the distractions again are more prominent.
It's been a long day at work and you don't want to prepare dinner, so you go out to eat.
Life events have heaped stress on you so you focus on relieving that stress though shopping.
Someone cut you off on the freeway, now you feel you need a coffee from a drive-thru to "reset your mind."
Each of these things can feel larger than they need to or smaller. It depends on the focus you give them. Today I encourage you to set up some money goals for yourself and/or your family. Perhaps they are more near term like paying off smaller credit cards. Maybe you set a larger goal of a fully-funded Emergency Fund (3-6 months of expenses saved in cash).
Whatever your goal is, after you have set it, put a reminder in your house somewhere you will see it every day. Have this reminder available so you keep your goal in mind instead of allowing the distractions to run your decisions. You may find the distractions are significantly less demanding of your attention while you have it fixed to something greater.
Thanks Todd.