It’s time to start our Awesome Finances Challenge!
This can be a scary or stressful area for many people … so this week, we’re going to be very gentle with ourselves as we start.
We’re also going to be courageous.
“You must do the things you think you cannot do.”
~Eleanor Roosevelt
This is about turning towards the things that we’ve been avoiding. It’s about fearlessly facing them, taking a deep breath, and starting to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We can do this!
Here’s what you need to do:
- Simply create a 5-10-minute session for sorting through finances. Block it off on your calendar. Set a reminder. Put a note somewhere you’ll see it. Don’t let yourself skip this, it’s important!
- When you start, enter into the Awesome Finances session with gentleness and kindness to yourself. Start with intention, to get your affairs in order, to create a good life for yourself (and your family, if you have one), to set up a solid foundation for yourself. Be gentle with yourself as you might be feeling some stress — give yourself kindness and an attitude of friendliness.
- Now make a list of things to tackle. Your list might be something like: make a list of debts; make a list of bills; update budget (or start budget); sort through financial papers or emails; email (or call) accountant or tax preparer; make a plan to earn more money; make a plan to cut back expenses. Maybe it’s “start tracking spending,” or “get my retirement and investments sorted,” or “call my health insurance to sort things out,” or “put all my tax documents in order,” or “sort through the financial papers after my dad’s death.” Make your list, even if it seems impossible to tackle right now.
- Each day, start sorting through those things. Every day this week, spend your session tackling one thing at a time. Don’t worry about the whole list — just tackle the first thing. And just one small chunk of the first thing. You do not have to sort through everything this week — you’re just getting started. This is about starting to face the things we haven’t been facing, with courage and gentleness.
- Finish the session with a bow of gratitude. When the time is up, you can go for a little longer if you feel moved to, but don’t make it a marathon session. Finish up with a bow of gratitude, to yourself for showing up.
This is a fearless practice of facing what we fear!
You can do this, my friends. Call on us in the #finances channel on Slack if you need help. Report your victories there as well, to help inspire others.
Commit to this challenge in the #finances channel, and report each week in the #checkin-monday channel.