I totally know how you feel right now! Have you been searching the internet high and low, reading books and blogs, and just trying to start your budget, but all you ended up doing was making yourself feel overwhelmed and stressed out? ...so then you ended up just doing nothing. Yep...you my friend have analysis paralysis!
Analysis paralysis is the state of over-analyzing a situation to the point that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome.
If you absorb information from every direction and try to do 20 things at once chances are that you're just overwhelming yourself. When you get to the point of overwhelm most of the time you'll end up so stressed out that you don't ever actually accomplish anything. This is NOT an effective way to achieve your goals...especially with your money!
I wanted to share with you my 3 simple steps for overcoming "analysis paralysis" so you could stop feeling overwhelmed + just get started with your budget already!
Hit play to watch the video version of this blog!
My simple steps for overcoming
“analysis paralysis”...
In order to break free from the overwhelm we have to do a few things first...
1. Visualize Your end goal
What is your ultimate financial goal? What lights you up + gets you excited about life? I want you to paint that paint picture in your mind! Visualize owning a home, starting a business, retiring, traveling, or whatever your dream is. Then, I want you to realize that you'll never get there if you don't get started!
2. Focus on one goal at a time
Next, I want you to realize that there’s no way you can successfully do 20 things at once! We all fall into this trap sometimes and end up thinking that we're great multi-taskers when we're really not! You know that you're honestly more successful, and more productive, when you focus on just one thing at a time. So we need to apply that to our budget as well.
You can't successfully save money for retirement, a house down-payment, your emergency fund; pay off 10 different kinds of debt; and lower your spending...all at once! What you need to do is make a written goals sheet with a timeline. Ask yourself what steps you need to take to reach that ultimate financial goal we talked about back in #1. Write all of those steps down in the order that you need to take them. Then focus all of your effort and extra money on one goal at a time!
To most of you this step might be a huge relief because you really have been trying to do 20 things at once. Think of this step as me giving you permission to rest easy with only one goal in the works at a time. This is going to take so much stress out of your budgeting journey because all of a sudden you're not spread so thin.
READY TO GET INTENTIONAL
WITH YOUR SPENDING?
Break free from living paycheck-to-paycheck
...an abundant life is waiting for you!
3. Just get started
Lastly, you have to actually start your budget! I have so many great ladies in my Facebook Community + on my email list that have great intentions to start their budgets. Most of them even sign up for my free 5-day email course, but then they never open the emails or they read the emails but never actually implement the lessons. I know they mean well and that they want to take that next step but they're just too overwhelmed. Once you read steps #1 + #2 though....you should be more than ready to just bite that bullet and start your budgeting journey today!
Once you sign up for the free course all you have to do is follow the steps one email at a time and one lesson at a time. You'll spend a few minutes a day for 5 days working on tracking your spending, you'll figure out where you're overspending, and where your weak areas are. Then after the 5 days you'll have taken that HUGE first step into your budgeting journey...and you'll feel amazing + super motivated!
As you go into this journey I want you to remember that you're budget doesn't have to be perfect to be successful. If you strive for perfection all you'll do is get hung up and fall right back into the trap of a "analysis paralysis". Honestly your budget won't be perfect the first month...and it might not even be perfect after several months (or years). However, something is better than nothing! If you realize on the 3rd month that you're still going over budget by $10, just realize that's it's a lot better than when you used to go over budget $50 back in the 1st month .
...it doesn't have to be perfect! As long as you get started...that's really what counts! Actually start! You can totally do this!
ready to do this budgeting
thing for real?
My full budgeting course, Your Sunny Money Method, includes...
- 10 Lessons on the why
- 20 Lessons on the how
- 14 Budgeting Worksheets
- Monthly Group Coaching
- Recorded Workshop
- ...and more!
HEY I'M SAMI WOMACK
I'm the wife to my high school sweetheart, Daniel, + homeschooling momma to our 3 girls. I'm the Budgeting Coach + Motivational Speaker behind A Sunny Side Up Life.
My family used to be in $490k of debt + living paycheck-to-paycheck, but after we hit rock bottom everything changed for us!
Now that my family has become debt free + gained financial freedom, I want to help your family do the same! My passion is inspiring women to live abundant lives through budgeting, intentional living, and positive thinking.
I offer a jump start into budgeting with my free 5-day email course + full budgeting experience with my course, Your Sunny Money Method.
