Money Obedience

I recently wrote about two ambitious goals that I set for myself but have not yet reached: improving my business prospects and improving my marathon time. Two questions came to mind after I posted the thoughts on these goals. First, why didn’t I write about these goals before? Second, why is it that I’m not upset about not having reached these goals?

Well, I think I did not write about these goals because I did not feel so good about them at first. Only when I took a hard look at failing did I become comfortable with the idea. As long as I ignored these goals, I could not think about Plan B and Plan C. But now that I have thought about my goals a little more, the options I have as I try to reach them, and the various responses I’d have to either a good or bad outcome, I feel so much better about failing.

Second, failing really is not the problem. Failure only becomes a problem when failure keeps you down. I know now that failing at these two ambitious goals is not going to break me. I can come back and tackle these goals again, and better yet, I know pretty much what I am going to do should I fail even a second time. And I decided that failing again would not be a disaster for me. So I think I’ve become pretty comfortable with the idea of failure. Don’t get me wrong, nobody wants to fail, certainly not I, but the point is that another failure would not break me. And that is the most important thing.

Likewise, any financial goal works the same way. There is usually one way or another out of financial troubles or failures especially if you take a hard look at the problems. If you are honest with yourself, I think human nature is built so that you can overcome almost any adversity, especially a financial one. Why especially a financial adversity? In the end, we are only talking about money. Contrary to common belief, money does not make the world go round. And if you’re so blessed to have enough to eat, shelter over your head, clothes on your back, money cannot make or break you.