Disciplined in 2022

When I look back on 2021 I can't help but remember the heartache we endured in the first quarter. We lost two of our cats and had to run medical tests on Rocco because his health has started to decline with old age. It was painful & expensive, but we gave each of them all we could at the time to improve their quality of life.

What have I learned?

Everyone is going to experience heartaches and hard times. Life is constantly changing & consists of many highs & lows. I often compare life to a roller coaster. The climb to the top is slow & intentional with one goal in mind- momentum. What goes up must come down. As you begin to fall back down to the ground, it is clear you hope that it:

1. stays on track

2. makes it way back up because falling down is scary and it could hurt.

Life is the same way. We all have to creep our way to the top by working, earning, and saving to build the life we want.

The difference that can make the lows more manageable in life is the discipline you adhere to while you are doing well. People don't become successful by accident. Everything in your life has to be intentional. Goals have to be set and a clear path to reach those goals should be written down. Then when something bad happens in your life (because it will) it's more of an inconvenience than an emergency.

Some of you may not like the word discipline, but even children crave discipline & structure. The human psyche needs it. It's even in the Bible.

"For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."

-Hebrew 12:11

So what do I mean when I say discipline? Devising a plan & following it.

The best way to start is with positive habits. Habits that you do every day. Habits that help you move towards your bigger picture. Habits that are going to help you become the person you want to be. If you are not happy with where you are at, please realize that you are the only person who can change that. No one can do it for you.

Last year, my ultimate goal was to stop trying & start training. This naturally led to more discipline & intentionality throughout my whole life. I had started a program with a personal trainer with the goal to increase my cardio, I began to budget & I really wanted to read more but could not find the time to make that happen. I also wanted to make our home look like no one lives there aka spotless 24/7, but that is nearly impossible. That doesn't mean I am not going to try...

As the months went on and my program ended I found myself slowing back down. I wasn't working out and I quit looking at our budget every week. I was slowly falling back into my old self.

That was when I pulled out my planner and revisited my goals for 2021. It wasn't too late to start again & I was able to get back on track. I began running twice a week with my sister & ended up running a total of 152.3 miles in 6 months.

• July 13.6 miles.

• August 15.6

• September26.3

• October 41.9

• November 21.5

• December 33.2

No one had any idea I could do this! Not even me, but I was intentional and I made it happen because no one was going to run for me!

I also began to dive back into our monthly budgeting practice. Zach and I sat down and started dreaming together and we were able to create some hefty financial goals for ourselves this year & the next ten years. We agreed that in order to achieve them we had to tweak our plan a bit. This included things like 100% combined finances, no credit cards, & using cash. It hurts more when you have to use cash and the results we found are that we save more. Not a bad trade.

I bring up finances a lot mainly because I have found that when I am in control of my finances- the rest of my life just seems to fall into place. My spending habits from ages 22-29 had no limits. I bought what I wanted to buy whenever I wanted. There was no delayed gratification because I used credit cards and often found myself in debt with nothing show for it. My goal was to be debt-free before we got married and that was a goal I accomplished just a month before our big day in October of 2018.

The problem was that my spending habits didn't change overnight. After we were married, we weren't budgeting and we were both still using credit cards to make purchases. We were, of course, paying off the balance each month. But some of those balances were extremely high! We were not spending with intention and had no discipline!

Now, you know that I have always been a plant person, but in 2020 during the pandemic, I went on a plant spending spree which led to my plant no buy rule in 2021. Now, in 2022, if I see a plant I want, I make sure I have it budgeted for. If it's not in the budget this month, I wait & save to pay cash for it. I have over 100 plants in my collection, do I really need another plant?

YES...

The answer is always yes.

The difference now is that I am living a more disciplined life with positive habits that are helping create the person I want to become. My typical morning starts at 5 am and looks like this:

• Enjoy a cup of protein coffee or tea while reading at least 10 pages of a non-fiction book.

• Hydrate

• Exercise

• Eat breakfast

• Tidy up (I've been following the Clean Mama Routine)

• Check-in with some plants

• Shower & get ready for the day

If you follow me on my personal Instagram page you may find that share a lot of financial tips from Ramsey Solutions. It's because my husband & I have found a plan that works and makes sense for us. It is so simple too, anyone could do it. Anyone, even you! Dave Ramsey is a curse word in some households, & to be honest, it was in ours too. My advice is to take a Financial Peace class with your spouse or read The Total Money Makeover before you completely shut his plan out. If you would like to borrow it so you don't have to spend money on it, just let me know. Copies are often found at thrift stores for quarters.

If you are still reading this, thank you. I hope that you found something to take with you. The whole point of this post is in order to make the progress you want, you have to be consistent in your day-to-day habits because it can take years to see the progress you want. In order to get to where you want to be it's going to be a slow & steady pace over the course of many years.

Always,

Erikka