Every one of us has made mistakes with our money, and we
will continue to make mistakes in the future. These are indisputable
facts. However, the way we react to these mistakes is critical in our
ability to grown and improve as human beings.
We all encounter budget failures caused by overspending.
The same methodology can be applied to financial budget failures to
learn from our failures. We can use these lessons grow stronger, and
avoid repeating the mistake.
My personal mistake
For example, a person training for a marathon runs much
longer one day out of each week. I’m currently training for my fifth
marathon, and I choose to have my long runs on Saturday. My training has
been going extremely well, and when I left my driveway at 8:30am last
Saturday I had no reason to believe my 16 mile run would be any
different.
Unfortunately, after only a few miles I could tell my mind
wasn’t in the right place. My mental state deteriorated from there, and
I actually ended up ending my run after 13 miles. My body and brain
were completely exhausted.
It was at that point I had a choice to make. I could
either wallow in my failure, or I could reflect on what caused that run
to fail. Thinking back, I realised I had overdressed for the morning
weather which was 15 degrees warmer than the days previous.
I also thought about how I didn’t go through my usual
stretching routine as I was in a hurry to get started. I remembered
downing a huge bottle of Gatorade six miles into the run, whereas I
usually drink small amounts at a time. I had not followed my usual
routine, and all of those things may have contributed to my run not
going as planned.
If you find yourself in a similar situation with your
budget, here are some ways to overcome a mistake before it gets too far
gone.
Identify the mistake
Ask yourself what was different during the time frame of
the budget failure. If you’re successful most weeks, but every now and
then you overspend, focus on what was out of the ordinary.
Here are some of common ones that have caused me trouble in the past:
Did you forget to plan your meal causing you to eat out?
Did you have an unexpected car maintenance expense?
Did you forget about an event or celebration that used up some of your funds?
Did you not track spending causing you to exceed your self-imposed spending limit?
Plan for the future
Next, identify what you’re going to do to prevent the same
mistake from happening again. Whether it be forcing yourself to meal
plan as part of your grocery shopping, or putting events on a big
calendar on your refrigerator door take action to ensure your success.
Recovering from a budget failure, and learning from it are
two very different activities. Recovering means you are able to cut
spending in another area to make your budget whole again. That’s great,
but without identifying the root cause of why, and how, you broke your
budget, you are doomed to repeat the same mistake.
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