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Recently, I reread my entire Harry Potter collection. I’ve been known to do that from time to time with different books or series that I love. In fact, I felt the pull of that story because I’ve felt under attack by a number of situations that are outside of my control. Times seem to be getting tough and I thought it was important to reflect on how to rebound when things get tough.
Then, a few days ago I came across a post from Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of one of my favorite books-Eat Pray Love (that I plan on rereading again sometime soon). In this post she said the following:
Without Voldermort, Harry Potter is just an
ordinary boy….
There are a number of situations that I could talk about but this is a personal finance blog so in keeping with that I will say that whatever financial situation that you’re dealing with gives your the unasked for the opportunity to dig deep and become more than who you were when you first confronted the situation.
Like most people, I have more than one Voldermort in my life. Currently, the Voldermort in my money life is debt and underearning (due to…being a bit too chilled out about work LOL!) While I’m irritated with myself I am excited to rise to the occasion and experience something extraordinary that happens when you achieve something you never thought you could.
How to Rebound When Times Are Tough
Embrace the hard times. I’ve had so many hard times it’s unbelievable. But, I’m still standing. In fact, because of the hard times that I’ve had, I’ve become a much more empathetic, generous, and understanding person when people share their stories with me.
Because of those tough times, I’m now able to help people work their way through similar situations and helped clarify my mission to help people better their finances and work through tough times.
I realized that many people out there hadn’t developed their “tough times muscle” and were having difficulties rebounding and staying focused when times were tough. Here are just a few ideas on managing difficult financial situations:
- Own how you feel. If you’re feeling discouraged, overwhelmed, etc. Own it. You’re feeling what you’re feeling.
- Don’t stay in that space. You’ve owned your feelings but you can’t stay permanently in that space.
- Find a community of people STAT. You can’t manage this situation on your own.
- Figure out a strategy that works best for you. If you like the: The Debt Snowball method then great, the snowflake method awesome, payoff the bill with the highest interest rate-great. Or, you decide to slash your spending like a ninja-awesome. Just commit to the process that works for you.
- Keep trying. This will be the hard one. Because it’s highly likely that you will fail.
This is where Voldermort comes in. Whatever enemy that you’re trying to slay: debt, low-income, your spouse’s financial issues, your financial issues, it’s more than likely that the issue you’re working on will get the best of you..until it doesn’t.
Keep trying. Remember, Harry Potter had to work through 7 horcruxes before he finally got the best of Voldermort.
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Gah got another invalid security token. That’s a voldemort to me! I have a non-financial V in my life right now that is weighing on me daily. I know how it can be. Good luck fighting yours. Sorry this is shorter than my last comment. lol!
Tonya! I do not know what an invalid security token is. I need to figure that out. I’m so sorry. I’m ver interested in your non-financial V (I have one too LOL!) keep the faith!
Underearning was definitely my top Voldermort. And now that I’ve slashed that nasty horcrux there’s always new challenges. But like you said, we keep going!
I think that underearning has definitely been something that I’ve struggled with…I’m working on several of my personal horcruxes right now. We’ll see it goes.
Love this Michelle. There are always challenges — for me it’s fear. Of doing bigger and better things outside of my comfort zone. We can do this!
That’s a good one! You are meant to do great things. You will burst through your comfort zone!
This was a great post and extremely motivational! Thanks for sharing some ways on how to work through the tough times! We hope that you can bounce back from your financial Voldemort and have some good times instead of tough times!
I think that discovering and owning your own resilience is a long-term process. I’m excited to see how this year will turn out.
I literally JUST published a post about underearning. It’s a bitch. For me my own horcrux is spousal money issues, but it’s a process…
I am not sure why I was content to do this. I actually used to work like a MACHINE. It’s really not rocket science…but, I think that I’m at the tail end of dealing with some really serious money mindset related issues.