Today I was hearing about a person who wanted to quit smoking but would frequently give in to temptation. For example, the person would just be walking by a store and then would decide that they have money so why not buy a pack? When you think about, virtually in every situation where a person wants to change a part of their life, we would often see them try to take the easy route out without changing their habits/attitude first.
Just like if you want to lose weight you will have to change the things that you do and not just rely on some quick diet. Similarly when it comes to one’s financial situation, if someone has trouble saving money then just giving them say $1000 won’t necessarily get them out of their rut as they will continue to make those impulse purchases or spend more than necessary on goods and services.
For myself, I’ve been very conservative with money ever since I was a child, but there was a time during my early young adult years where I frequently spent more than I really needed to due to the fact that I had the funds available, so it didn’t seem like a big deal. It wasn’t until I sat down and actually looked at the transactions that occurred on my bank account to see just how much I was spending that I realized that change was needed. For example, back then I had just started my Internet site I was pretty open to virtually everything that I read to try and make my site successful. Even with little things such as $20 for site submission services was like pocket change, but it did add up. I have a fairly high standard on how much funds should be in my account and when I saw that number quickly dropping, I decided that it was time for a change.
What most people would do is that they would try to find some get rich quick way which they feel would solve all of their problems. Instead, I used the “The other way to make money is to save money” approach and started by first making myself learn more about the Internet so that I could do most of the tasks by myself. Now instead of taking the time to find products/services to improve my Internet business, I was learning how to do it. Not only did this save me a lot of money, but I came out with so much more knowledge about the industry and this was only possible because I decided to change my habits.
Think of it like a vending machine dilemma. If you just happen to have a dollar in your pocket, you are more inclined to use it to buy that drink whereas if you didn’t have it you would have no choice but to not buy it and therefore you would save yourself money. If you are currently in a position where you are not entirely happy with, you must be willing to change your lifestyle. If you keep doing what you’re doing you’re going to keep getting what you get.