Small Steps Can Lead to Big Financial Changes
Seeing decorations popping up everywhere reminds me of one of my favorite songs from the television feature “Santa Claus Is Comin’ to Town.”
A young Kris Kringle is trying to help the mean old Winter Warlock change his wicked ways. Kringle sings, “Put one foot in front of the other and soon you’ll be walking ’cross the floor. Put one foot in front of the other and soon you’ll be walking out the door.”
The point is that if you want to change direction, start with a small step. That’s the advice I give to folks who are fretting about all kinds of financial issues.
A survey done for MoneyRates.com, an online source for bank rates, found lots of people with financial regrets. Sixty-two percent of survey respondents said they worried about having too much debt or not enough savings. People with such problems have trouble focusing on larger financial goals, such as saving for retirement.
“By definition, regret is a backward-looking emotion,” says Richard Barrington, senior financial analyst for MoneyRates.com. “But if you want to avoid having those types of regrets repeatedly, it’s a good idea to let what you don’t like about your past behavior inform how you make decisions in the present and plan for the future.”
So, what’s stopping you from making changes to correct the behavior that causes you to worry about your money?
Have you convinced yourself that change is hard?
Well, stop thinking that way, says Robert Maurer, a clinical psychologist at UCLA. Instead, Maurer wants you to embrace the power of the Kaizen, which he explains as using small steps to accomplish large goals. It is most illustrated by the quote “the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”
Maurer hopes to break down the barriers that keep people from achieving the things they want. And it’s why I’ve selected his book “One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The Kaizen Way” for the Color of Money Book Club for October. Look for the updated version released this year.
The fear of change is rooted in our brain’s physiology, Maurer says. “The brain is designed so that any new challenge or opportunity or desire triggers some degree of fear.”
Maurer’s strategies — part clinical, part psychological — help people move past their regrets or frustrations so that they can improve their finances, health, careers or other areas of their lives.
If you want to get out of debt, think small. Many experts will tell people to start paying down debt with the highest interest rate. But I’ve found — as Maurer makes the case for in this book — that taking a small-step approach to debt reduction (paying down the debt with the smallest balance) produces a great sense of accomplishment, which in turn motivates people to stick to their goal of getting out of debt.
If you want to stop overspending, start by removing just one object from your shopping cart before heading to the cash register, Maurer suggests.
“By taking steps so tiny that they seem trivial or even laughable, you’ll sail calmly past obstacles that have defeated you before,” he writes.
You might still resist Maurer’s simple strategy because the results you want don’t come soon enough. It’s why people overloaded with debt want to believe companies promising a quick fix to the financial mess they’ve gotten themselves into. Or fall for get-rich-quick schemes.
Maurer says if you find yourself getting frustrated by your slow movement toward your goal, ask yourself this: “Isn’t slow change better than what I’ve experienced before . . . which is no change at all?”
Don’t give up. Commit to a life of continuous improvement, Maurer advocates. Because a small step really can make a difference.
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Source: Washington Post