We all need to be inspired by something or someone. For you, maybe it’s a mentor, family member, celebrity, or co-worker. Perhaps it’s a cause, a movement, or someone’s story. Maybe it’s a dream, or sometimes even more powerful, a setback in life. Whatever or whoever it is, knowing what inspires you is critical. It’s essential to understand what truly drives you to grow and to accomplish more. It may be seeking after something you want or avoiding something you don’t. But no matter what it is, the inspiration must be coupled with a routine, rhythm, or discipline to keep you on track. You’re not always going to be inspired in every moment; it’s a statistical impossibility. You must build in this discipline to move forward even when you are not feeling inspired.
You may have heard the saying, “the skills that got you out of Egypt will not be the same skills you need to reach the promised land.” We may want to get into shape, so we create a workout routine to get us to a specific benchmark. But from what I have found, your routine might be great, but doing the same movements over and over again may cause you to plateau.
You then have to incorporate different exercises, increasing the weight lifting capacity that gets you to that next level. Then you realize that diet factors heavily into this as well, so you make the necessary adjustments to achieve the next benchmark. Much like the workout analogy, the same study habits of cramming and all-nighters used in college may not be the same skills you want for your career. The budgeting skills your parents taught you may keep you from going into debt and may allow you to save at a faster rate than those around you, but those same skills may not be applied to earning more income.
I often think about when I committed to and saw through getting out of my own debt. It was daunting at the time. I found that I was working primarily to pay these things off. I had fallen back into the trap that I had told myself I would avoid.
Steven Covey says, “Make and keep a promise to yourself.” And at this point, this sentiment was exactly what I needed to recommit to and follow through on. Although very satisfied by my chosen career field, I realized that I had fallen back into the proverbial rat race. Instead of focusing on paying down or paying off said debt, I was in accumulation mode. The skills that I utilized to take on a challenge like paying off debt are significantly different from the challenges I now face today. Let me explain.
There are seasons of life that seem to build upon each other. I have outlined these financial seasons in an upcoming series. The premise is that whether you are in high school preparing to go into college, or college preparing to graduate and join the workforce, or even retiring from your job and entering the retirement phase of life, there are seasons we go through. But for many, life is not that clear-cut, so you may be financially in one season, while due to social norms, you may be living a lifestyle in an entirely different season. Within these seasons, we may see ourselves hyper-focused on expanding our knowledge, growing our risk tolerance, or scaling back our overhead. We may find that we are fixated on our defense in one season, protecting what ground we have gained thus far. In another season, we may be switching to an offense approach, working to gain new ground. Frequently, aspects in life build upon each other in either a positive or negative way. The same skill set necessary for building and maintaining credit looks different from that of retiring debt or accumulating wealth. This explains why you may see a linear thinker (like an engineer) be frugal and intentional with money. They may build wealth in a very different way than, perhaps, a creative artist. Don’t limit yourself to focus on just the defense or just the offense; instead, find a strategic approach to your personal finances that attends to the needs of both.
This all comes back to what motivates you and what inspires you to build Margin into your life. Were you impacted by watching a loved one live paycheck to paycheck and never pursue their dreams? Or watching the years go by and realizing that you are no closer to paying off that new car you replace every few years? What about that student loan that seems to get paid off so slowly that you wonder if it will ever be paid in full? Or is it something more personal to you?
For me, I have watched a lot of people build lifestyles that required that they make a certain amount to maintain that lifestyle. Unfortunately, any blip in income (i.e., a spouse that decides to stay home with the kids, a layoff, etc.) can wreak havoc on someone’s finances if they have not taken steps to be prepared.
I have historically been frugal: not cheap, but economical. Growing up, we would spend summers in Ohio, where my grandparents lived, especially once my grandpa passed. My grandparents lived through the Great Depression, but they were not equally affected by the experience. My grandma grew up very poor. She had 13 siblings, and those times were very difficult for her. My grandma taught me how to conserve, how to stretch a dollar, how to barter and negotiate. I learned much of this by observation, but she taught me some fundamental life lessons about handling money. She didn’t buy something that wasn’t a deal, nor did she buy anything she didn’t need. She was formerly a real estate agent, so I think she unashamedly loved the chase of the deal—which we both share. She was such an inspiration to me, and to this day, I think about her and her conservative approach to handling money. Although she was frugal herself, she would always make sure to take care of those around her and put everyone’s needs before her own. She would volunteer in various roles within her church, feed the homeless, and was active in her community. I loved her most because of her love, concern, and care for others—she did not know a stranger. She would literally befriend anyone. Sadly, a sense of care for the community is seemingly missing in today’s culture. You often cannot serve another person without them questioning your motives. But she was from a different generation, a generation that seemed much more hospitable, one that would invite neighbors and even strangers over for a meal and share a table with someone with entirely different outlooks on life. Today, we have become more and more polarizing as a culture. Despite that hard truth, my goal is to bring people together by providing a platform to discuss personal finances, to which everyone, no matter what their walk of life, is affected. Ultimately, I want to be prepared for opportunities and then act on those opportunities to build a legacy in serving others where I can add the most value.
