Sunday afternoon, Micah and I saw an interesting commercial while we were watching watching My Own Worst Enemy (ep. 3) on Hulu while cooking badami chicken. It was for Don’tAlmostGive.org and its message was precisely that. Don’t almost give. Give.
That made me think of how many things we almost do. We almost gave to a charity. We almost started saving for retirement. We almost invited a friend over to catch up. We almost e-mailed Mom. We almost made a dentist’s appointment.
The commercial showed kids aimlessly hanging out in a parking lot. The narrator told us that the citizens almost built these kids a community center. Almost.
Don’t almost start saving for your goals. Save.
Don’t almost start paying off your debt. Snowflake.
Don’t almost start tracking your freelance or blog income. Get a spreadsheet.
Don’t almost know where your money is going. Budget.
My “almost” is almost always a response to being afraid that whatever I want to do is “just too much” or “just too big.” It’s true, I can’t pay off $100k in debt in a day. It would be unreasonable to expect me to do so, just like it would be unreasonable for me to have saved up for a violin the day after I decided to do so. Yet, saving bit by bit, I got that violin. Many people achieve financial freedom with baby steps.
When it’s habits, then my “almost” is normally because it’s “too inconvenient.” Whenever possible, I tell myself “I’ll do it this once.” I give up resolving to do it every day and just do it when I’m trying to put it off. Often enough, I’ll successfully put something off. But I’ve also built a number of good habits (like flossing) by taking the pressure off and telling myself that I don’t have to get into an inconvenient habit, I’ll do it this once.
Have you almost done something you know you should? It may look intimidating, but you can work it out step by step, little by little.
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