There’s a major element that separates the legendary from the mediocre, and that’s self-discipline. The highly successful people had so many failures and challenges, but they still stuck to a routine, day in and day out. They stuck to a habit that enabled them to carve out the success we see them in today.
Self-discipline is what brings you long-term and sustainable success.
As a student, it’s prudent to have financial goals. It doesn’t matter if you aren’t earning an income or you don’t have a job. Money management is more about being smart about your purchasing, savings, and investment decisions. If your goal is to save $20k in 12 months, self-discipline is the factor that will stand in your way of purchasing those headphones or buying dresses during a sale.
Ultimately, self-discipline isn’t only the required willpower to do what needs to be done, but also the ability to withstand temptations to accomplish your goals, whether short-term or long-term.
1. Figuring out your WHY
Questioning your why every now and then is crucial to your journey in life and success. According to ‘The Mojo Master’ speaker and mindset coach Michael Johnson, we must always know what our why is and revisit it often. When we know very clearly why we want to be more efficient in our money management and why it’s important to us, we can make our goals happen.
For each day, it would mean you wake up and read your mission and goals, so they are always at the forefront of your mind. Reading your WHY daily every morning helps you reinforce your good habits — you remember why you must do it and why they are there.
What’s your WHY in money management as a student? Here are some ideas to help you out:
- I want to reduce my student debt.
- I want to save $500 by the end of the month.
- I want to make sustainable choices for clothes and food.
- I want to be able to afford a deposit on a decent rental after graduation.
When you read this first thing in the morning and throughout the day, you tend to make conscious choices to ensure you meet your goal. All of these actions help you stay disciplined and on track to keep living an extraordinary day tomorrow.
2. Journaling your progress
Our bad habits always originate from a lack of focus. For Moshe Malamud, former owner of The Franklin Mint and founder of M2Jets, a private jet service, he used his journal as his biggest tool to gain clarity of who he is, who he wanted to be, and what his goals were. If you continuously track, monitor, and analyze your progress, it’s very hard to develop bad habits.
3. Knowing your triggers
To break your bad spending habits and instill focus, you need to know what your triggers are, find their source, and isolate them. What triggers you to make impulsive choices? What are the things you find you spend most on and frequently? If you like scrolling Amazon Prime at night, and then end up adding an item to your basket, STOP. This is your trigger. Think about all these things that make you spend unnecessary or waste money on and write them down, so it becomes clearer to you and it motivates you to eliminate these triggers.
4. Planning for better habits
Part of your daily habits would also entail planning to incorporate more good habits into your life. According to Martin Grunburg, “Good habits happen when planned; bad habits happen on their own.” That’s the exact thinking behind his free app ‘The Habit Factor,’ which aims to help people create good spending habits with reminders for certain dates and reminders to complete tasks they want to start or stop.
5. Invite reflection
Reflecting on what you’ve done and how you’ve worked before to attain your previous goals will help you achieve your future ones. Sometimes, looking back helps you pinpoint what exactly went wrong or how best to improve on this.
6. Meal prepping
Food should make us feel good and what we eat directly affects how we feel. If it tastes great and nourishes our bodies at the same time, bonus points! Not having a good experience with food ultimately leads to negative feelings. For many of us, we spend a lot on food, whether it’s groceries, take-out, delivery, or going to a restaurant. If this is your trigger, then one of the best ways to eliminate your food expenses is to meal prep. Meal preparation is a way of life as well. It’s a diet that looks at healthy and wholesome home-cooked meals and learning how to portion control.
By getting ourselves involved with meal preparation, we pay more attention to our food and the prices we pay. It allows us to save more and make better food purchasing decisions. Ultimately, it improves our purchasing habits with food.
7. Committing to exercise
This may sound like it’s a whole different universe. What has exercise got to do with money management? A lot, actually. When you commit to an exercise plan, you’re committing to a routine. A routine helps you stay focused on what you’ve planned over the week. Let’s say you’ve committed to an exercise routine of 3 times a week, at 8 pm after class. You get a party invite on the same day you’re supposed to exercise. What do you do? Well, in many cases, having a routine and sticking to it means you’ll be less inclined to feed your temptations and allow your triggers to get the best of you. Having a plan means committing to you, which relates to your WHY. This is something you can journal to help you in times when these triggers come up again.
For more money-managing tips, resources on creating a student budget, or any other information, check out University Herald, an excellent student guide to help you maneuver through student life.
