FIVE WAYS TO FLIP THE SCRIPT ON YOUR FINANCIAL OUTLOOK: IT'S ALL A MATTER OF A POSITIVE PERSPECTIVE
Tonight’s post is a guest post from the lovely blogger and author Valerie Clark. Sharing her wisdom and insight on how a positive perspective can affect our lives and our finances.
So, I guess I would describe myself as “outdoorsy,” with a big asterisk. Like, I enjoy being outside under certain conditions: the temperature should be between 70 and 73 degrees, there should be ample shade, and–I cannot stress this enough–NO BUGS.Of course, I’m kidding (sorta). In reality, here in Northern Minnesota, no matter the conditions, we soak up every moment of the summer and squeeze the most out of every precious weekend, relishing the hot breezes and late sunsets because soon enough, it will be February,30 below, and dark by 4:30.So it was that last weekend, my husband Adam and I set out upon a quest to explore the Lost Forty. This fabled forest is an old-growth grove of 144 acres accidentally spared from the great logging rush of the late 1800s, thanks to a surveyor’s error. The 300-and 400-year-old trees are the oldest in the state.After a quick picnic lunch, we set out on the winding one-mile loop, admiring the towering red and white pines. One of the signs along the trail described a “green cathedral,” a perfect description of the lovely canopy. Even more impressive than the trees’ height was their width, and the thought of all they have survived across four centuries!I love being in the woods. It was gorgeous.But if I’m being honest?The bugs drove me crazyEvidently, it’s “deer fly” season, as someone said on the trail, because these annoying insects were out in force. They kept dive-bombing my head and buzzing in my ears, prompting me to flap my arms around my head like a maniac. It was so annoying that as beautiful as the forest was, I was completely distracted and taken out of the moment. All because of a few little bugs!
I learned a couple of things from this experience:
Maybe wear a hat next time!
Focus on the positive and be grateful
Here I was, hiking in one of the rarest sections of wooded land in Minnesota. It was a beautiful, perfect day, and the scenery was unbeatable. I had the chance to spend some quality time with my best friend in the world, my husband, doing one of my favorite things.But instead of appreciating all of those wonderful things in the moment, all I could think about was those annoying flies! What if I could have just been a grownup, ignored them and enjoyed a peaceful walk in the woods, filled with gratitude?The power of focusing on the positive can be applied in all areas of our lives, particularly the financial parts, with great results. Here are five ways that a shift in attitude can improve your outlook, financially and otherwise!
Focus on where you’re going, not where you’ve been.
We all make mistakes. What’s more important than what you’ve done in the past is what you’re doing today to improve yourself and your situation in life. Don’t spend time dwelling on past regrets. There’s absolutely nothing to be gained from this except bad feelings! Instead, concentrate on all that you have accomplished and your goals for the future.For instance, now that I have learned about the power of compounding interest for investments, I wish I would have started investing, even just a little bit, YEARS ago! But I can’t go back in time, so there is no point in thinking about that.
Focus on what you have, not what you’re missing.
When we became serious about our personal finance goals and the idea of working toward financial freedom, we had to make some major life changes and sacrifices. This is not easy. We live in a consumerist society, and “buying stuff” drives our entire economic system. Wherever we go, we are slammed with marketing messages urging us to buy more, bigger, newer. It can be difficult to resist, and at times you might feel sorry for yourself as you look around and see everything that you think you’re missing out on, from new cars to vacations to a bigger house. The cure for this feeling is gratitude. Instead of focusing on what you want, focus on what you’ve got. After all, if you can’t learn to appreciate what you have right now in this very moment, how can you ever find true contentment? You’re at risk of spending your life spinning your wheels and constantly chasing after the next thing.
Focus on yourself, not on anyone else.
Along those same lines, the “Fear of Missing Out” phenomenon has gone into overdrive thanks to social media. Through careful curation, our friends, loved ones and random co-workers from 12 years ago are constantly tweaking their online profiles to represent a picture-perfect existence. Have you ever thought about those Snapchat and Instagram filters? We are literally putting filters on our lives to make everything look better; in a more indirect sense, we’re also “filtering” out all the bad or boring stuff with what we choose to post. Of course, just because this now happens online doesn’t mean it’s anything new. We all work hard to portray an idyllic image of ourselves at all times.We can’t accurately compare ourselves to each other when we don’t know the truth about each other’s lives. Even if we could, comparison isn’t a healthy habit.There’s nothing to be gained, except negative feelings of jealousy, by evaluating our lives next to those of others. Focus on what you can change about your own situation, and don’t spend time concerning yourself with what others are doing!
Focus on what you can do instead of what you can’t do.
All we can control in this life is our response to situations we can’t control. In a way, there’s a sort of wonderful freedom in that. Take charge of those areas where you can make a direct impact. Feel the satisfaction and fulfillment of making a difference.As for everything else? Let it go!You can apply this to your financial life, too. You have greater control over your expenditures than your income, so be diligent and disciplined about your spending. It will feel great!
Focus on the little things.
In my quest toward financial independence and attempts to maintain a healthy, sustainable budget, I am struck over and over again by the realization of how much the little expenses add up to big expenses. I am talking about $3 cups of coffee, $23 meals out and $17 Walgreen's trips that add up to hundreds of dollars a month. It never fails, and never ceases to amaze me. If you keep an eye on the small stuff, your monthly budgeting will be wildly successful. I think focusing on the little things is healthy in life, too! It might sound corny, but there’s something amazing about taking time out to actually watch a sunset. Celebrate the little things that make life sweet, and the big things will feel even better!
Final thoughts
To put your new positive mindset into practice, here are a couple of tricks. First, when you feel those negative/jealous/crabby thoughts start to creep in, learn to identify and acknowledge them right away, then find a way to counteract them! For every bad thing that happens in your day, I’m certain there’s something good that you can focus on instead. It’s also helpful to start the practice of writing down something you’re grateful for before you go to bed each night. This trains you to emphasize all of the great things happening in your life–even the small ones! Now, I’ll be the first to admit that this isn’t always going to be easy, or even possible. There will be bad moods, terrible days, and real tragedies and disasters in life that we can’t breeze past simply by thinking happy thoughts–to suggest otherwise is to trivialize the life-changing and difficult situations that people face every day. But if we make a concerted effort to embrace life with positivity and gratitude, won’t even the worst day seem just a little bit better? I think so!
