The Foundation

Are you PX90ing Your Finances?


Are you PX90ing Your Finances? 

Seriously, have you seen that home workout? Over the 90 days, it seems like you do 4,867 burpees, 11 million squats and 5,998 push-ups all while watching this uber fit guy easily complete the workouts. It’s intense! It even sounds hardcore. 

Now, I don’t doubt that, if you did finish it, you would be on the road to being uber fit guy/gal yourself, but here’s the problem:

After the 90 days, you probably would never want to do another burpee for as long as you live. It’s not sustainable. 

What’s the parallel to our money?

Too often we approach our finances like a PX90 workout. Something dramatic happens in our lives, and we get ridiculously motivated and create the WORLD’S BEST Excel budget and start tracking everything… and I mean EVERYTHING!

Don’t forget that coffee receipt, and library overdue fee, and that subscription renewal charge… This lasts for about 2 – 4 weeks, and then we fall back in the same patterns and habits that we tried to escape in the first place. 

How can we avoid reverting to our old ways?

Let’s start by cutting some slack.

We are humans. Naturally, we crave and desire the cool and sexy thing. I mean, why would you go for a boring walk or light jog every day when you could complete a gladiator marathon workout like PX90 and amp up the whole thing? And then post that amped up thing on Instagram? 

Whether it’s our physical health, our weight, our diet, or our money, we are often disappointed when we hear the simple answer is “go for a walk every day,” or “eat less calories,” or “spend less than you make.”

What’s exciting about that? We crave intensity to break up the hum-drum of life. 

But you know what, that intensity is short lived. 

Real changes require us to do an even harder task than the PX90. Real changes require a deep-down change in ourselves. And hell, that’s not an easy job. 

When we approach our finances in the gladiator-style manner, looking for exciting, get-rich-quick ideas, we will usually end up disappointed as the thing we pinned all our hopes on fizzles out.

Here’s the thing:

The biggest impact we can have on our own finances is first understanding our money relationship (if you missed that early post, click here. It’s foundational).

Then, once we understand our money relationship, we need to apply:

  • Discipline
  • Patience and
  • Hard work. 

Our financial transformation happens when we apply these principles over and over throughout our lives. 

It’s not about 30, 60 or 90 days. It’s about the everyday, for all our days. 

My point is simple:

We are over complicating our finances. Instead of doing the daily, weekly and monthly work required, we try to find a simple fix. Go hard for a short period of time. Find the fancy, alluring strategy. Or perhaps we are just ignoring finances altogether. 

Here are two simple things to think about:

  1. Have you discovered your money relationship? This is important because it helps you to become more engaged with your money. 
  2. Do you check in with your money? Whether it’s daily, weekly or monthly? Doing so can avoid you getting to a level of overwhelm that might make you try the PX90 approach to your money.

Now, like most of us, I can make a change when something is simple and easy to understand. 

In the next post, I will share a “Cash Flow” strategy that changed my finances and how I manage my money.

Note: I use the term Cash Flow as budgets give me the jitters and makes me feel like I can never spend any money. So, let’s stick with Cash Flow!

In the meantime, aim to do the hard work of self-reflection.

Are you PX90ing your finances or do you have a long-term, sustainable plan?

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