This post is a little harsh. At first I planned on saying “Sorry about that.” Then, I decided to be unapologetic about this truth. Your results may be a reflection of your efforts.
How hard are you working towards the goals that you set for yourself? Are you the person who has been frustrated by your lack of love life, inability to pay off debt, save money, meet people, or change your job? Do you find that people quickly switch the topic when you mention one of the above issues? Have you been talking about one of these issues for a long time and don’t see a change in the status quo of said issue?
Your results may be a reflection of your efforts.
I will be my own case study. I was very frustrated with my debt situation and I really wasn’t making a lot of headway in repaying it for a LONG TIME. The truth is I wasn’t as committed to the process of debt repayment as I needed to be to actually achieve results. It is no coincidence that in the past year I have achieved more results than at any other time during my debt reduction journey. I actually committed to the process, I dug deep, and I began to believe in myself.
Here are some of the things I did on my debt journey in 2013
- I blogged about my concerns about my debt every single week. I had posts up 3 days a week but that was a result of thinking about and working on debt issues everyday.
- I did a year long No Shopping Challenge that will end on April 1, 2014
- I tracked my spending (a little half-heartedly) but I did it
- I reduced my expenses. I got stuff out of storage and I paid off several credit cards
- I got rid of unnecessary stuff.
- I worked side-hustles, increasing my income
- I reduced the number of library fines I was paying
- I brought my lunch (I always did that before) but, it was a great habit to have.
- I used my Groupons/LivingSocial Deals wisely and reduced the number of deals that I purchased
- I will be changing my cell phone service at the end of January freeing up even more money towards debt repayment.
There is no way that I couldn’t achieve some wins with that amount of effort.
My weight loss journey wasn’t going very well and I was tiger-mommed by my mom on Thanksgiving about my lack of weight loss. She reacted strongly because she (and my friends) are the ones who hear me complain about my weight, see how I feel about myself, and are concerned. I always knew what I needed to do to lose weight-it’s NOT rocket science. Basically you have to: eat less, eliminate the bad stuff, and exercise-the key being that you have to be consistent with the process. I have done that and have slowly begun to lose weight.
I wish I could say that it has been easy-but that would be a lie. It has been really hard, mentally exhausting, and occasionally I wanted to quit. Then, I started to experience some success. You will find that as you experience positive results it becomes addicting. You want to experience more success. Don’t get me wrong there are some cases where no matter how hard you try you might not experience the result your working for. If that’s the case, change your plan and keep trying.
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Nothing wrong with speaking the truth. I feel the same way.
I usually don’t want to harsh on people. A lot of times I’m writing to myself-if you know what I mean. Right now I have to dig deeper and it really sucks. But, if I want to get the results that I’m working towards I’m going to have to try harder. That’s just honest.
There are few people who see results without trying, it’s true. It sounds like your mom was just giving you a gentle kick in the butt! Sometimes, moms are good for that. 😉
I don’t enjoy getting Tiger Mommed-but, it definitely worked! I have exercised almost every single day since she said that.
Most of the time we are in our own way. I have mental battles with myself every day! I have to snap out of it and get to work and make sure I am doing what I need to do to move forward and not stay stagnant or regress.
You said it! That post was basically me speaking to myself. I’ve been in my way for too long. So, I have to suck it up and make things happen.