From Self-Criticism to Financial Freedom

"I'm still learning" is one of my favorite go-to phrases when I royally mess something up. A big change from who I used to be - the person who would harshly pick myself apart, speaking unspeakables I wouldn't dare say to anyone else but myself. Sound familiar? Sometimes we can be our own worst enemy.

We're all still learning. We're souls having a human experience. Part of that experience, by design, is to make mistakes and create contrast in our lives so that we better know what we do and do not want to experience more of. 

Early in marriage, money was tight. One time, a family member gave us $1,000 - enough to put a real dent in our debt. But instead of paying down what we owed, we bought an elliptical machine. I convinced myself it was a step toward self-improvement (and for a while, it was… until it turned into a glorified coat rack). It didn’t solve our financial problems.

Later, thanks to a church workshop, I learned to track every dollar we spent. It was tedious and I didn’t want to do it, but desperation can be a great motivator. It turned out our biggest money leak wasn’t emergency expenses or big splurges; it was eating out. Food from the grocery store was going bad while we spent too much on low-quality takeout.

When we know better, we can choose to do better. With a few adjustments including simple meal planning, a little extra effort, and a willingness to keep learning, we started to patch the leaks (Check out this post for my exact approach). That first success was a win that gave us the motivation to keep going. Over time we paid off every debt. Even our mortgage.

I could have opted to stay stuck. To not look at where our money was going, adopting the "How is this going to help anyway?!" mindset. I'm so grateful I instead opted for the "I'm still learning" path as it enabled a life of financial freedom. 

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