Reduce/Eliminate Debt Week 4

A little less productive this week.  I guess I got all the easy stuff taken care of already.  I'm still making some progress (at $102/month saved), and I hope to have a good chunk more taken care of by the end of next week.

I'm not really getting anything from the Financial Intention thing.  I think I broke it from the beginning because I didn't really buy into it.  I always say that whatever you think is going to work, will.  Whatevs.

One side note, is that I feel like I'm spending time on this everyday, and that it doesn't seem very sustainable.  The hope I guess is that eventually, you wouldn't really have stuff to work on everyday.  Depending on what module starts next month, I might keep going on this one to just clean everything up.

Did really well on eating, gratitude, and mobility this week.  I didn't get to workout as much as before, because I hurt my back a bit, but that gave me renewed motivation to get my mobility going again.  On the diet front, I decided to eat super low-carbs and reduce calories (~1000/day according to fitbit) this week and next week to see if I can cut up before Vegas.  I'm not gonna get all Jersey Shore on you, but it's working :)

Reduce/Eliminate Debt Week 3

I've been making great progress on reducing my recurring payments.  So far, I've eliminated $80/month.  I've got another $200 or so that I think I can get rid of as well.

Although, I've been saying the stupid Financial Intention everyday, I'm still buy stupid stuff like chips and soda.  It's funny how bad decisions in one area are also bad decisions in other areas.  I've decided to add a reminder at around 5p to restate the Financial Intention, to see if that keeps me on track at night when I'm weak and stupid.

I'm still killing it on crossfit, but I'm slipping a bit with the eating and mobility.  Shouldn't be hard to get back on track.

Reduce/Eliminate Debt Week 2

It's been pretty easy to do my weird Financial Intention mantra every day.  I even tweaked it a bit to fit my issues.  I've been a bit better about making progress towards reducing recurring payments as well.  

I actually did an audit of all my recurring payments and was surprised at what they added up to.  On the up side, there were a good chunk of them that can be cut out with little or no pain.

I finally think the Financial Intention stuff is starting to pay off.  I still buy stupid stuff like popcorn at the movies, soda, dining out too much, etc., but I'm at least thinking consciously about it and make a few better decisions here and there.

Other Habits

Killed it on Paleo this week during the week.  I've also been going to crossfit everyday for a while now.  I'm super ripped at this point #lie.

I'm still doing the Gratitude habit, and I continue to enjoy it.  On a side note, I think it helps me fall asleep faster.  Weird.

Reduce/Eliminate Debt Week 1

This week started the Reduce/Eliminate Debt module which consists of creating the daily Financial Intention habit as well as making progress towards longer term habits like paying debt automatically and such.  

I've been good on my weird morning phrase that I say (out loud).  I have been unsuccessful at actually doing the stuff in my "mantra" or completing any of the financial tasks that I've given myself.  I think I just started with ones that were hard.  I need to break them down better to bite off reasonable daily chunks.

Still going strong on the Gratitude habit.  I like it.

Gratitude Week 4

This last week I tried to be grateful as I was checking off the completion of my habits.  I should have done it as I was about to do the habit, but it was still nice.

I've really enjoyed this Gratitude thing.  It's all been very subtle, but whenever I did it, I was always happier afterward.  Can't complain about that.

I'm going to continue these two habits (3 things I'm grateful for before going to bed and being grateful while performing habits) for a while.

Next week is Reduce/Eliminate Debt.  The idea here is obvious.  The habits you're going for are 

1. Face debts
2. Be conscious of spending
3. Automatic debt reduction
4. Regular review

The problem with these habits is that they aren't daily.  These can be developed but take 1-2 years.

To form these long term habits, we start with a daily Intention habit of declaring how you're going to be I guess.  It's kind of like a daily affirmation, but it's something like, "Today I intend to be conscious about my spending…."

Personally, I'm pretty good with these long term habits already.  I've had everything in Mint.com for years.  I know my debts, assets, network, payments, etc.  All payments are automatic.  I review and categorize all charges once a week.  

The only thing I don't do is watch spending.  I basically buy whatever I want, but I'm naturally against buying stuff.  I get trapped on buying perishable things like food (restaurants), drinks, services, etc.

I think what I'll do is make my daily Intention focused on spending to help me make better short term choices.  Then I'll take 5 minutes a day to identify something I can eliminate and actually eliminate it (I'm looking at you Earth Class Mail).

Gratitude Week 3

I've been doing really well on the Gratitude habit this week.  I've found it works really well to just think about what I'm grateful for as I'm going to sleep.  Maybe that'll subconsciously do something for me too.

I really like Leo's article on Using Gratitude to Form Habits (that link to sea change members).  Basically, you think about being grateful for each of the steps of forming a habit (choose a habit, commit, do it, check in).  This let's you feel good about the steps before you even see the results.  I know I've accidentally done this in the past, and it works great.  In fact, I wonder if that's why it's easier in the beginning of forming a habit, because you're pumped about getting to do it (maybe not).

Now that I've been successful so far, I think I'm going to incorporate gratitude into my other habits (mobilizing, self tracking, crossfit, paleo, etc).

Gratitude Week 2

I basically forgot about this until today.  I lost the reminder on my wfx app.  No excuses.  Play like a champion!  

This is the weakest post ever.