In my 30+ years on this earth, I don’t know why I’m always surprised when my plans don’t go as expected. Yet, time after time, I’m still in awe of life just happening despite my best efforts at planning and preparation.
This week on Instagram, I launched a series called Scary Money Moments. I came up with the idea for Scary Money Moments at the beginning of October. I thought it would be a great way to celebrate the Halloween Holiday while also sharing the everyday financial struggles of ordinary people.
Bringing something to life happens in three phases.
You form an idea.
You plan and prepare.
Then you execute.
After doing all the hard work behind the scenes to bring my idea to life, I was naturally excited for launch day. I created the images. I loaded everything into my Instagram Scheduler, trusting that when I awoke the following day, Scary Money Moments would be on the interwebs, reaching my followers on Instagram.
Except that’s not what happened. When I awoke Monday morning, I found that my scheduled post had not gone out, and I’d missed the sacred window of time that Instagram allows for your followers to see your post. Upon doing some troubleshooting, I discovered that this failed launch consisted of two problems. One I could control and the other I couldn’t.
I had two choices going forward. I could default to my normal reactions and get upset and scrap the whole project since I missed that prime window of visibility. I could beat myself up about how the thing that I could control was my fault and let that affect my momentum going forward when it came to launching new ideas.
Or
I could get out of my feelings and learn the lesson the moment was sent to teach and keep going forward knowing that this one misstep didn’t invalidate all my hard work
I chose the latter.
You can not let missteps, misplans, or mistakes dictate the future of your life or derail you off the path of your financial journey. When I had to walk away from my job to take care of my mental health, everything that we planned for our financial future ended up sitting on hold, waiting for my next move. Plans change. When it comes to finances, plan derailments are going to happen. You may forget to schedule the payment of an unexpected bill. You may find that you need to spend more this month on groceries than you originally planned. Heck, you might lose $20 while out running errands, and that was going to be your lunch money for a get together with friends. There are a plethora of things that could happen, and there will be tons of stuff that will happen. That is just a part of life. How you choose to respond to that situation is a reflection of not only your character, but it also shows your commitment to the process.
