The main reason people fail to achieve financial independence is procrastination.
They do not:
set financial goals.
have a cash management system.
pay themselves first.
have a tax savings strategy.
plan for unexpected events.
It’s not that they plan to fail -- they simply fail to plan.
So if procrastination is our enemy, how do we overcome it? The hardest part of financial planning seems to be in just getting started. What is easy to do, is also easy not to do! So we look for something or someone to motivate us. A book, a quote, a persistent friend, or an advisor jolts us into action. I want to share a story about motivation that changed how I use it.
I was at a leadership seminar, when the presenter John C. Maxwell, while discussing personal growth, talked about motivation. His message was clear:
“Don’t wait to get motivated”
He went on to discuss an excerpt from a medical magazine…
“We hear it almost every day: sigh, sigh, sigh.
I just can’t get myself motivated to…(lose weight, test my blood sugar, etc…) And we hear an equal number of sighs from diabetes educators who can’t get their patients motivated to do the right things for their diabetes and their health.
We have news for you. Motivation is not going to strike you like lightning. And motivation is not something that someone else – nurse, doctor, family member – can bestow or force on you. The whole idea of motivation is a trap.
Forget motivation. Just do it. Exercise, lose weight, test your blood sugar, or whatever. Do it without motivation. And then guess what, after you start doing it, that’s when the motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep on doing it. Motivation is like love and happiness. It’s a by-product. When you’re actively engaged in doing something, it sneaks up and zaps you when you least expect it.
As Harvard psychologist Jerome Bruner says, ‘You’re more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action.’ So act! Whatever it is you know you should do, do it.
So there you have it. Wherever you are on your financial odyssey, know that I am ready and willing to help. And the motivation will follow…
Jay Stark - Sutton Financial Group
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