THE QUESTION THAT REALLY MATTERS: WHY?

I think we can agree that we ALL want to do better with money. The real question, the question that matters is why?

What I have found interesting in the past year or so of working with people is that when I've asked that question many people tell me, "I don't know, I just want to know I'm doing good, that I'm okay financially." And although we can take that response and say that they want security and stability, I think that's not a strong enough response for the question why. At least is not a strong motivation to drive a transformation.

So, you might wonder, well, if security and stability is not a strong enough motivation then what is?

Usually, is the "why" to that why. As much as we want to present ourselves as simple beings, let's face it, we're not. There are layers that form our mentality and drive our actions. If we stay in the surface, in the "I just want to be okay financially", something eventually is going to present itself where we're going to feel the need of being okay in that circumstance even if it means that our finances will not be okay.

For example, a person is stressed out to the core with work, family issues, relationship and that person might "need" to go away in order to be "okay mentally", but they don't have money to go away on a trip, so they put it in the credit card, which is already high and end up getting deeper into debt. And we wonder, why is that? Because, at that moment the desire to be okay mentally outweighed the desire to be okay financially. But what if we were to dig a little deeper? To find out why they want to be okay financially? What if they can connect the why to a vivid memory of a moment that they were overwhelmed and stressed about not being okay financially and now they can hold on to that so when something comes up, it will cause them to pause and think of the effects that their decision will have.

You're why can be to look at your past and say I don't want to feel or be in that situation again or your why can be looking at the future and completely goal driven. You're why can even be both! Mine sure was.

In about late 2012 to early 2013 I got Invisalign because I was getting married, and I wanted my smile to look better by the time of the wedding. So, I paid my out-of-pocket portion with Care Credit and would pay minimum payments every month. Fast forward to 2014, I'm 6 months pregnant and my husband loses his job and now my income has to cover all the needs. Well understandably I stopped making payments because we simply didn't have the money to do so. Eventually I ended up forgetting about that debt because truth was, we were drowning in so many of them. Fast forward again to 2017, payday was among us, I sign into my bank account to review my budget, pay rent and bills and I see our account is in $0. In complete panic, crying I call my husband and tell him that somebody got into our account and took our money. By God's grace the situation was resolved in 2 hours and that debt was paid off by somebody else who stepped in and truly blessed us. But that feeling and that memory pushed us to say this can NEVER happen again. We need to do better, we need to get out of debt, and we need to save. So, looking at the past became our why we want to do better financially.

But then looking towards the future our why was our boys. We want better for them; we want to be able to give them a better life and by that we don't mean expensive shoes and clothes we mean leave them an inheritance, give them a house, a property. Hopefully pay for their school so they don't drown in student loan debt, above all teach them financial literacy because it's not like the school teaches them that to prepare them for life.

It is for those 2 reasons (past and future) that I personally want to do better financially and won't let anything get in the way of that. My why is too real for me to ignore when I want to feel okay in other circumstances. And I truly believe that if you dig in deeper by simply asking why, you too will find your answer to be so real that it will drive you towards your goal.

Let me know in the comments, what is your why? I would love to know. And if you feel like well, I don't have a reason from the past and haven't spent much time thinking or dreaming about the future, I want to encourage you to go to the free resources tab and get my guide to setting goals like a boss. It has some steps and worksheets that I know will help you so much.

Talk to you soon, besos!