Two words with similar meanings that you will never find paired in a thesaurus are budget and diet. A budget is a system or plan used to manage your money. If you spend more than you earn, you need to do one of two things: decrease expenses or increase income……or try a little of both.
The same holds true for diet. A diet is a system or plan used to manage your food intake. If you gain more weight than is healthy for you, you need to do one of two things: decrease food intake or increase physical activity…..or try a little of both.
Even though the solutions to both entities are fairly simplistic, the behaviors necessary to attain healthy bodies and healthy finances are far more complex. Let’s be real, if it was easy we would all be thin and rich. When people hear the words “diet” or “budget,” the first thought that usually comes to mind is one of deprivation. “I’m not going to be able to eat the foods I love.” “I’m not going to be able to spend money anymore.” But, (and this is a big but), your brain goes in more than one direction. As easily as you can think negative thoughts, you can also think positive ones. The positive approach is to look at food and/or money management from the standpoint of control.
Control is a concept that is not widely embraced anymore. In our present era of entitlement and instant gratification, it’s pretty much gone the way of old technology (meaning into the dumpster). “Addiction, overeating, crime, domestic violence, sexually transmitted disease, prejudice, debt, unwanted pregnancy, educational failure, underperformance at school and work, lack of savings, failure to exercise — all of these have some degree of self-control failure as a central aspect, says Roy F. Baumeister, PhD., a social psychologist at Florida State University. When a University of Pennsylvania study asked people to rank order their strengths using 24 different psychological skills, guess which one ended up at the bottom? Self-control.
Setting up a budget or developing an eating plan is a positive management tool because each gives you the opportunity to be in control. With self-control comes empowerment. Do you really want to wait to start taking care of your money when you are in dire straits and the bill collectors are hounding you? That kind of budgeting is stressful, if not actually painful. The same principle applies to health. It’s much easier to lose 1-2 pounds per week than it is to lose 10.
There are many things we can’t control–Mother Nature, other people, and cats–to name a few. An appropriate, if not timely, resolution for 2015 might be for you to decide that this is the year you will take control of your finances.
List your expenses, one by one, and determine if (1) they are appropriate, (2) meaningful, and (3) necessary. If you decide to eliminate or decrease some expenses because they no longer meet your needs or lifestyle, then you are taking control. Those actions will help you:
- feel good (yeah),
- get you closer to your goal of financial security (who doesn’t want that),
- and last, but not least, foster better self-control.
Bottom Line?
I’m not psychic, but I’m going to go out on a limb and make a prediction– I think you will derive more pleasure (inwardly) from practicing self-control than (outwardly) by yielding. A 1971 commercial catch-phrase says it best: “Try it, you’ll like it!”
