Why Can’t I Keep My Financial Resolutions?

Speaker A00:00:28

Ralph, I crushed January and crashed by February. How can I keep my resolutions? Let me tell you. First of all, I'm not a big fan of resolutions. If you want to do them, that's fine.But so many people start the year with fire. But then by week five, listen for me, by week, by day two, I'm fried. But in the end, you don't have a discipline problem. You got a system gap.And I love what James Clear. He wrote a book called Atomic Habits. And he said this. He said, you don't rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.And that is so true. See, God's not asking for perfection. He just wants persistence. Because if we're being honest with each other, excitement fades, but systems endure.And that January motivation feels spiritual, but that February reality feels heavy. So let's talk about how to build habits that oust lay us hype on today's show. Hello and welcome. I'm Ralph.Thank you for joining me today on Financially Confident Christian. My goal every day is to help you break that cycle of financial shame and do it with confidence.And the thing I'll tell you, I've been coaching people just like you for a long time now. And what I have learned is people who stay consistent are more successful. And once they simplify things, it makes it even simpler.And my own breakthroughs, because, listen, I've lived what you're living right now. They didn't come through these big magic portions of things that worked out.They came from boring, faithful repetition, and it wasn't exciting, but it worked. Let me tell you about a listener. She sent us this email. It's been about six months now.And she says, ralph, one of the things I want to do for next year is I want to make a resolution to not eat out so much. She realizes she's spending a lot of money on eating out, going to restaurants.She said, I want to do it on the weekends, but, Ralph, I want to stop doing that on the weekdays. And I said, that is a great resolution.Again, I'm not a big fan of resolutions, but I like this one because she's going back and she's seeing how much money she's losing from going out to eat during the week. I said to her, I said, how can we make this work better? She goes, I got an idea. I got a friend of mine wants to do the same thing.I said, okay, great. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to have a competition, and we're going to See who could save the most.And she tracked this weekly with a friend. And listen to this, the two of them, each of them saved 240 plus dollars a month just by cutting out, eating out during the week.That means doordash, means all those things just eating at home. And the best part of they kept it all year. And her secret wasn't willpower, it was structure. Like James Clear said, it was a system.So let's get back to our question today. Why do resolutions break? And how can you finally make them stick? And again, like I said, I'm not a huge fan of resolutions.Let's use my term, how do we make better plans? Because what we want to go for to is empowerment. I'm going to share some ideas with you. Number one, number one thing, simpler sticks longer.A lot of people get in these pie in the sky, these broad bases, massive things. Just go to one idea, just one focus change beats 10 failed ones. Pick just one lever. I love what this listener did, Ralph.I don't want to eat out during the week because that one simple change lifts a whole lot. And it's not doable daily. It's not going to last Monday. That's the thing.You got to understand simple changes because when you start with less, God can multiply it more. Because a lot of people you need to understand, you need to hear this right now. You're not lazy. You just overlook.You're trying to do too much at once. So that's number one. Number two, you're going to laugh when I tell you this. One. Habit over hype. See, faith isn't about a moment. It's about a method.Again, I'm going back to what James Clear said. What are systems? So think about your new habits that you want to build into. What are your existing rhythms right now, here's a great example.Let's say that you always go to church on Sunday. Sunday's a day to do some, some recollection and some reflection.Well, maybe Sunday's a great day to do your budget check, pray for provision, look over where your money went this week because those small rhythms can form strong roots. They say it takes about six weeks to start a new habit or to break one. I find myself breaking habits more than starting them.But see, it's that consistency, it's not hype. A lot of people will say all kinds of nonsense. Oh, here's your best way to get through your New Year's resolutions. Buy this app.Sign up for this course. Most people, it's not going to work. They're going to. You're going to. You're going to lose some money. You're going to have a course.Maybe you'll spend a couple days doing it. But it's that consistency that's greater than the hype because it breaks that guilt.One of the main core principles of this show is so many of us get stuck in that cycle of financial shame, but you break out of it when you're consistent. Which leads me to this. Track it. Don't just try it. What gets measured gets mastered.I know you probably see, Ralph, you say that on the show all the time, but I truly believe this. I'm a true believer in this.Put your progress where your eyes can see it, because when you can see it, you can measure it, you can do something about it. It's so easy to leave that invisible. But when you track it, it turns that invisible growth into something that's a visible victory.You can have those celebrations because even Jesus told stories about servants accounting for what they were given. Think about the parable to talents and see, stewardship is spiritual record keeping. We got to keep track of this.Another thing I'm going to encourage you to do is add some accountability. This is the thing I will tell you. What I have found that works most best for most people is you got to work with somebody else.Because trying to do it alone fades fast. It just does.But if you do it together, if you have somebody that you can rely on somebody when you're having one of those rough days, that's why it works so well for our listeners. Her good girlfriend of hers, they did it together. They made recipes out so they could eat, you know, during the week without going out.They made it a game. They gamified it. So right now, tell a friend, if you're struggling with something financially, tell a friend, use an app, join a group.I'm gonna talk to you about a community here in a minute. But community keeps commitments alive because you don't need constant cheerleaders. A lot of people say, well, I need a cheering section.No, you just need one person that you can check in with.One of the best ways that things like Alcoholics Anonymous work well is because you have sponsor, you have accountability partner, you have somebody that cares for you. My people say, well, that's control. No, it's not. Accountability isn't control, it's care. So go find that person.Maybe you're that person for somebody else. Let's get into our Bible verse today again, we go to Proverbs, chapter 16, verse 3. And it says this, and I just love this one.Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans. Commit first. You notice that he starts off with that. Commit to the Lord whatever you do. You got to start there.If we're going to plan things, commit them to the Lord. So if you don't want to do resolutions, if you're like me, you don't regret, well, commit these things here, Lord.These are the things that I am going to do in the new year. Here's the things that I'm going to focus on. Commit those things first, and he'll help you establish them. Because here's the truth.God doesn't build what you won't bring to him. Most people's New Year's resolutions fail because you haven't taken them to God and said, God, this is what I want to do.Is it in your will for me to do this? Well, how about we pray together right now, Lord, we come to you right now, and we want to move forward. We want to do good things in the new year.Lord, we ask you right now to help us choose commitment over emotion. It's so easy to get tied into emotion. I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this. And then when we struggle, we don't know what to do.So, Lord, teach us endurance day by day, week by week, month by month. And Lord, above all things, give me humility right now to ask you for help.Because I recognize I need that, Lord, and make my progress steady, not spectacular. I don't need big wins, Lord. I just need little wins. But I need you at the helm of this, Lord, So give me that humility to ask for help. And Lord, I.We know that you promised us to be our provider. And, Lord, we just lean on you right now and we ask this in the name of Jesus. Amen.All right, you're one action item, and I'm kind of half hearted doing this. I'm not a big Resolution fan, but I know listeners are. So here's one, right, I want you to write down one resolution today. Just one resolution.If you listen to yesterday's show, we talked about building smart goals. I wanted to be smart. If you missed that show, you can go back and check it out. But write that resolution today and share it with one trusted person.Find that accountability person and track it. And as you're tracking it, just. I want to encourage you right now. Ask God to help you with it and then thank him for every small win.And listen, don't over plan this. A lot of people get stuck in them. And it doesn't have to be some broad big idea. It could be something very small. But just begin faithfully.Because the truth is, and I mentioned this a little earlier, you don't have to do this alone. One of the reasons I created this community, it's called financiallyconfidentchristian.com/join. That's where you get to our community.I created this community because I wanted people like you to be able to interact with each other. It's a way to help ourselves be accountable, help to pray together.There's encouragement there when you're feeling down, go to the community where we can grow further when we grow together. So again, I encourage you. It doesn't cost you a thing. Go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/join and join our community today.And as I close today, your excitement started your journey, but your habits will finish it. Like I said earlier, simpler lasts longer.Track it, don't just try it and build that community because that accountability person is going to fuel that commitment. So I'm going to encourage you today. Go be a financially confident Christian, stay financially savvy and listen. You can do this.God's with you on this. So God bless you and I hope to see you again on tomorrow's show.