There is this thing about us human beings that we know exactly what we should’ve done once it’s too late to do anything about it. This means that we have known about it all along but for some reason we chose to ignore it or to take no action. Why? Most likely because by ignoring, it led to a more pleasant situation in the moment when we had to make the decision. We simply lack discipline. If we reverse the scenario and look at those who actually make the “right” decision in the moment, these people are often defined as people with discipline. But many of us don’t have that discipline in every aspect of our lives. Those many are also us who have to work out the consequences in the after math.

It is possible to live a happy life without discipline, you might have to deal with some consequences but most likely you’ll get by. However, I would argue that you won’t live your life to your fullest potential without discipline. Discipline is often related to strict and seriousness and it’s not a word you would use in the context of fun. Not a very attractive word when it comes to enjoying life, but let’s redefine this. I don’t think that discipline is all about being strict, it’s about caring about oneself. It’s a warm word that in the big picture makes us feel even better, definitely something to strive for to enjoy life.

We don’t have to exhaust ourselves by being all militant about being disciplined, I do however think it’s important to find a balance and define in what areas of life it is of importance to be disciplined for us. Health and personal finances are two areas that should be included.

I am not going to talk about health because we’re having some finance fun here today, but just to play with the thought. If everyone was disciplined regarding their health what would the world look like? There would be significantly less pressure on the health care. In the current state we smoke even though we know it harm ourselves, we over consume processed food and chemicals even though we know it’s not good for our bodies. Why? Because it feels good. Wait, what? We want to self-destruct because “it feels good”, even I have bad eating habits and I can tell myself that this is a pretty lame excuse not to take responsibility over myself.

The next question is how would our personal finances look like if we had more financial discipline?

Take a minute to reflect about it…

Your thoughts will lead you towards the behaviors you have because “it feels good” but affect your financial health negatively. Use these thoughts to think about how you can change in order to care more about yourself and make you feel better in the big picture and not just in the moment.

Let’s start using our money the way we know we should while we still have them.