You guys. I’m so excited to have Brianna back on the blog again! This week is all about creating a better life for yourself so you can wake up excited for what’s to come. First I kicked it off with recipes that won’t make you feel like you’re missing out, then I talked about creating a healthy relationship with exercise so you can stick with it longterm, then today Brianna is going to talk about using your resources to create the best life for yourself, day after day! Bri is one of my favorite people to chat with because she always helps put things in perspective. And something that seems so complicated, she will always help show you that when you break it all down, it’s quite simple. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I do and don’t forget to check out The School of Betty to help you master your own life, every damn day!! You’re going to love her!
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Hi you beautiful souls! Ahhhh, it’s so great to be back on PaleOMG! Juli is one of my most favorite people and she is a dear, dear soul to me. This time last year I was here chatting about MOOLAH. I debunked some common thoughts we have about money and gave you 5 actions to create a badass relationship with that green stuff. You can read that article here.
For those who don’t know me, I’m Bri the founder of The School of Betty! I help women master their money, time and energy (your resources) so they can lessen their stress and live a badass life. I created this company after paying off over $30k in credit card debt and doing several years of no shopping which led me to some big ah-ha’s about happiness and helped me recognize just how much impact our resources have on our daily lives.
You see, we use money, time and energy every.single.day. That is probably not news to you…it’s not rocket science. Although sometimes it seems like it. What do I mean? We know we use these resources, but we don’t often understand how they connect to our goals and being that it is the New Year, I figured this was the perfect time to connect some dots for you because if you know how the dots connect, you are set up for success.
My motto: simple actions done consistently will have an incredibly, powerful impact on your life. So before you go ham and create a huge new year’s resolution that you might give up on, I want you to understand these three things that concern your money, time and energy because knowing them will make all the difference for your life and your goals.
#1. TIME AND ENERGY ARE JUST AS VALUABLE AS MONEY
Is there such a thing as having a spending problem with your time and energy? Uh, hell yes. It’s called not having boundaries and it gets us into a lot of trouble! Here’s the thing that most of us don’t pay attention to (or perhaps are ignoring), there is no limit to how much money we can receive, but there is a limit to our time and our energy and unfortunately those are the two we spend like they will always be there. We can’t get more than 24 hours in a day or 365 days in a year and because of the first law of thermodynamics, energy can neither be created or destroyed. So what does this mean? We need to be really good at managing our time and our energy friends because they are precious resources. If you hear yourself saying, “There aren’t enough hours in the day” or “I’m always tired” – this bullet is for you (laughing in my head because this sounds like a budweiser commercial).
How do we get better at managing these two resources? We create boundaries. Boundaries are your friends. Want a real easy one? When deciding what to do with your time and energy, if it isn’t a hell YES…then it’s a hell NO! Also, believe it or not, “no” IS a complete sentence!
#2. YOUR GOALS = NEW HABITS & BEHAVIORS
Our brains use a lot of energy and so they are constantly thinking of ways to go on autopilot to conserve this energy. AND, because we know energy is a limited resource, this is a great thing! Imagine if you really had to think about each step required to brush your teeth or start your car…right? Holy balls! Our brains are crazy complex and keep us alive, BUT…here’s the kicker…your brain can’t tell you if the pattern it creates is good or bad, it just recognizes repetition. That means when you do something enough times, your brain locks it in as a habit. Are you hearing this? Can we get an amen for how hard it is to go back to the CrossFit gym after being out for a week or two? Uh, yeah. And it’s even harder because your brain decided that NOT going was the new normal. So when you are starting something new (ie a New Year’s resolution), it means you are committing to new habits and behaviors and those new ones are probably the opposite of your current ones. This PLUS your brain is going to do everything it can to get you back to your old pattern because that is EASY (…and it doesn’t know that dinosaurs are no longer a threat to your life, so you don’t need to conserve that energy to run away on foot).
So when you are creating your goals, it’s important to understand what you are doing NOW. Why? Because it tells us the pattern and when we know the pattern, it’s easier to create a new habit. I’m gonna really simplify this, but here’s a breakdown of the habit loop:
- A trigger or cue happens and your brain says, “Ah! The cue! I’m supposed to do XXX” – Like, it’s dreary out (cue) today, I need a Starbucks.
- Then you do XXX, which is the behavior – Go to Starbucks
- Once you do the behavior, you receive the reward – You drink your latte
Most individuals try to change EVERYTHING when starting something new, but here’s a little habit hack: The easiest way to create a new habit, is to change the behavior! (Dreary day = adding special half and half to your coffee at home = drink awesome coffee). Get it?
#3. PERFECTION IS THE ENEMY, PROGRESS IS QUEEN
Ya’ll, we’re really ambitious which means we overestimate what we can actually accomplish and this is usually because we aren’t taking into account that our new goal means we just committed ourselves to new habits and behaviors. So going from eating out 7 days a week to cooking at home 7 days a week is basically a complete overhaul of your day to day life…that’s no small feat. And most of us measure our success on our expectations, not our actual progress. So now we have a crazy ass goal and bonkers expectations and you know what? It’s a recipe for quitting. Why? Because we didn’t give ourselves a realistic goal and we didn’t measure our success on our progress. If we didn’t do it perfectly we give up. WHAT!? This kills me. We make so much progress each day in our lives and we don’t celebrate it. And friend, we HAVE to celebrate those milestones. That is what gives you the motivation to keep going! Let’s put this into perspective: if you had to walk a combined total of 1 mile in a week and day one you could only walk for 5 minutes…isn’t that more than zero? Babies don’t give up after they fall down when they learn to walk do they? (Insert baby sayin, “you know what…that 1 step wasn’t worth it…I’m done here.”) Nope.
If this sounds like you, there is one way you can remove the pressure of the goal that will help you stay on track and celebrate your progress: set an intention. If your goal is to workout more, your intention could be to move your body up to 2 days a week in a way that brings you joy. Well…that sounds lovely. I bet if you did that 1 or 3 days that week you’d be STOKED!
My friend, knowing these 3 nuggets will set you up for success in any area of your life. Too often in January we start over without acknowledging just how far we’ve come. It’s much easier to continue a project that is half-way finished instead of starting a new one from scratch, don’t you agree?
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To send you on your way, I’ve put together 5 more actions for your life that, yes, are so simple you are going to assume they won’t work…until you try them for a week (If you’ve done my 5 money actions, you already know how powerful these simple acts can be when you do them consistently). You can also join me for a FREE 5 day challenge starting today (January 3), where I will walk with you to kick some booty on your goals this month!
Ready? Let’s Grab Life by the Betties shall we?
FREE DOWNLOAD: 5 powerfully, simple actions you can take TODAY to create a badass badass life.
Livin’ & Lovin’
Bri