Money Mindful Moms

I could live in the months of October-December for an eternity and just loop the magicalness that is Pumpkin spice latte season through Santa over and over. However, the time has come to clean up Christmas and start thinking about 2019.

As you probably already know, I’m a personal development junkie. Give me all the podcasts, books, youtube motivational clips, all.the.things. So this time of year I look forward to my quiet time where I can reflect and plan out my next year. I don’t go overboard, I can usually pin point one thing I really want to work on. That one thing usually gets written down, I sometimes make a goal poster, and have a plan in place to focus on my one thing in the new year.

This year, however, I was listening to a podcast and the person being interviewed was asked about New Year’s resolutions and his thoughts on them. His answer was a light bulb moment for me. He said, and I’m totally paraphrasing, that the problem he had with resolutions is that we usually pick something we feel like we suck at and then spend our time focusing on how to not suck so bad at that thing. No surprise, then, when your motivation wears off because it’s not exactly exciting to focus on your sucky areas.

Instead he suggested you focus on who you want to be in 3 years and then back into that vision. So, if in 3 years you want to be a healthy, fit person that can complete an iron man, then your New Year’s focus can be who you need to be in the day to day to become that person in 3 year’s time.

It clicked when he explained it in that way. I hear from people that they know they need to set a budget, do cash envelopes, curb their spending, whatever it might be, but it always comes across with a sense of frustration around a perceived obligation, instead of a sense of hope around who they will become in the process. If you enter 2019 with that mentality you will lose before you start and you will be frustrated.

So here’s what I’ll be up to in 2019:

In 3 years time I want to be totally debt free and financially secure enough to give freely of my time and resources. I want to be a source of hope for women who feel alone in building a business and getting out of debt. I want my children to see me work hard, give to others and still know they’re my priority. And I want my husband to have the freedom to follow his calling and be the biggest blessing to the world in a way that he sees fit.

In order to be this person in 3 years we need to:

• pay off all debt (except for our mortgage)
• have a fully funded emergency fund
• be able to max out our retirement contributions

So in order for us to be able to accomplish that, my daily actions need to reflect who I’m becoming in 3 years time.

My daily choices will be :

• daily quiet time
• making time for exercise and good food choices
• creating a weekly schedule that reflects both my business and family time goals
• sticking to our schedule
• creating a monthly budget with numbers that reflect our debt payoff and savings goals
• sticking to our budget

When I find myself wavering in motivation and faith I will ask myself

“Is what I’m doing right now getting me to the person I want to become?”

That’s what I’ll be focusing on this year. What about you? What are you working on for 2019?

Wishing you a very Happy New Year!

<3 Krista