I’ve been experiencing a bit of financial pressure as of late.
By now, it’s kind of old hat. I’ve been through this before. So, while there is some cause for concern, I know that worrying isn’t going to add a second to my life. Staying in action is going to be a better use of my time, energy, and resources.
And whenever I’m in a crunch, I start reflecting on what worked in the past. What did I do to get out of the situation?
Here are some things that immediately came to mind:
- Reduced my spending. Which is a rather natural response to feeling financially stretched.
- Tracked my spending. At one point, I tracked all my expenses on a whiteboard for a full month. By the end of that month, I was already in much better shape financially.
- Filled my mind with positive thoughts. I read books and listened to audios about the Law of Attraction.
- Spent time in gratitude. I said “thank you” out loud multiple times per day. I made a daily list of things I was grateful for. I actively sought out ways to feel and express gratitude.
- Took inventory. I will look at what I own, what I can get rid of, what I can sell, and so on.
- Cleared the clutter. I’ve always found that taking out the garbage and recycling, cleaning the dishes, and generally completing unfinished tasks makes space for the new to flow into my life.
There may not be any correlation between the actions taken and the results produced. But I tend not to write off anything as insignificant. While the past doesn’t always have the answers, there is always something to be learned from it.
I’ve won this game before. And there is something to be learned from that.
Is there more to learn from failure than success? That’s what we’ve been taught to believe, but I think it’s nonsense. We just need to pay attention to our successes more. Stop judging everything as good or bad, because all the pain we experience is proportional to how “bad” we experience something as. You can’t quantify the magnitude of “bad” because it’s individual. I don’t know what “bad” feels like to you.
What do your successes have in common? Start paying attention to them. There’s something to learn from your wins, just as there is something to learn from your losses.
