The Repentant Steward

UGH.

Right now, yes, RIGHT THIS MOMENT, I am going over my checking account and realizing I have gone a little overboard with after-Halloween sales and a local company's "going out of business" sale. Fortunately, we have the money to cover my impulses, but looking now, I would rather the money had gone to something else. I feel like a BLAH steward.

Yes, I make mistakes still. (Gasp!) Am I still learning? Thankfully, yes. Would I rather be perfect? Yes. Will you make mistakes, too? Yep. Knowing this, we are also learning to be nicer to ourselves when we goof.

Every once in a while, someone in the personal finance class I teach gets a little frustrated that their budget still reveals kinks after 3 months. More than once, I've said "this class will not make you perfect." Sure, it's an awesome resource and provides great tools, but it will not overcome all human tendencies in one session. We all want to do better and think that a big enough desire is sufficient to erase all possibilities of future mistakes. The truth is practice-practice-practice is what grows our muscles, spiritual, physical, financial, and all else.

Hmm... I suppose it is times like these that shed light on how far we have come. I am grateful that because we have made such strides in our financial journey, we can afford a larger learning curve. My overspending will not rob us of food or get our lights shut off.

I hope you feel grateful, too:

Gratitude that you are now in a situation with a larger buffer against you and impulsiveness.
or
Gratitude that you are learning things now to help you create a better financial picture than yesterday's.
or
Gratitude to start again with the power of experiences.

But when we're in the middle of a blunder, is it OK to get mad at yourself? I say, sure! Right now, I feel kind of sucky.

...

(fume)

...

OK. Time to get back up and move along.