Pimp Your Finances

One thing I’ve noticed about goals is that after you decide on them, you feel a wave of enthusiasm.  The sky is the limit, even if expectations are low.

Then reality kicks in.  You experience a few failures, and if you’re lucky, a few successes.  But regardless of how much progress you’ve made, you start feeling down.  The potential of your expectations is contrasted against reality, and the result can be crippling.

The feeling is best described by Tinny Tim, the crippled robot orphan from Futurama:

 

You raised my hopes, and dashed them quite expertly.  Bravo!

How we handle ourselves at this point is critical.  Human nature says to give up, but why is that?  If we understand the psychology behind goals and motivation, we can overcome our self doubt, and accomplish anything.

Why do we feel a rush of motivation at the start?

There are a few reasons.  The first is that before we start on any endeavor, the possibilities are endless.  Any decision we make only limits our possibilities, so by definition, the potential is greatest before we start.

Another reason is that as we start on a new project, we’re thinking only of the expected benefits.  Although we know we’ll encounter difficulties, they do not factor into our thoughts as they have not been realized yet.

Why does the motivation fade once we start?

What goes up must come down.  It’s true of gravity, and also of human emotions.  The rush of optimism at the beginning must be great because it helps us turn an idea into an action, but eventually the initial buzz is going to fade. 

Maybe the results aren’t what we hoped.  Things could be harder than we imagined.  Or it could be that the appeal of something new is wearing off.

What happens next determines if we’ll accomplish our goal, or give up in failure. 

How can we overcome the setbacks?

When you hit a setback, don’t give into emotion.  Try to be analytical about why it’s happening.  If you’re reasonable and figure out the cause of the setback, you can figure out a way to overcome it.

As an example, I’ll use my goal of attracting viewers to this blog.  After a month, I had a week where I averaged 100 hits a day.  I thought I had reached a tipping point.  The next week, it was down to 20 hits a day.  Despite my low expectations, the decline was hard to take.

My first reaction was to doubt myself.  I questioned my writing, and wondered whether I could be a unique voice in the financial blog world.

Then I calmed down, and thought about why my hits had decreased.  First, I realized that I hadn’t posted in over a week.  Then I realized that I hadn’t tried to market myself at all since my last post.  No wonder my hits had suffered.

Instead of following my first reaction to give up, I decided to post more often and work harder at promoting my work.  Not surprisingly, my hits started increasing again.

Don’t give in

Once you decide you can’t do something, you lose the ability to do it.  It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

When you feel the worst, that’s when you’ve got to try the hardest.  Instead of giving up, try to figure out the source of your problems, and work harder to solve them.

If you overcome setbacks – especially the initial loss of motivation – you can accomplish anything.