One Secret to Lasting Transformation
Have you ever asked yourself:
- “Why can’t I stay on a budget?”
- “Why did I wait so long to pay that bill?”
- “Why do my finances feel so out of control?”
Don’t worry, you are NOT alone. My women clients often come to me with these frustrations, and I will admit to thinking all of the above myself. But there is hope, you can change your financial situation. And it may not even require earning more money. The secret? Money Time. (This concept goes over best if you rap it like MC Hammer, “Stop. Money Time.” And yes, if you now have an inkling to go listen to the whole “Can’t Touch This” song, that would be considered a valuable reward for hard work, see below. )
In one of my favorite books, The Sweet Spot, Dr. Christine Carter explains the science behind elite performance and increasing your overall efficiency in your life. Whether you’re at work, school or home, Carter insists that you can find your Sweet Spot where you are operate with the greatest strength and the greatest ease. How great would it be if you could get your financial tasks completed without duress?
Surprisingly, Carter advocates working less to get more done, including “taking recess” to accomplish more items on your daily “to do” list. One of her suggestions is to convert responsibilities (like paying bills, disputing charges, creating a spending plan) into habits and reducing the amount of effort that is required in deciding to do the task. If you can make regular Money Time a habit, not only will financial tasks get done on a consistent basis, you will complete them with less effort! To convert tasks into a true habit where you complete it as if on auto pilot, you need to identify a regular trigger: something that acts as a cue to begin Money Time. Maybe your cue is once a week when you drive a kid to a lesson, or once a month when your paycheck is deposited.
Another key to creating new habits is identifying the right reward.
Rewards are Dope(amine)
Neurologists have identified a Reward System in our brain that releases dopamine whenever we experience a reward. Dopamine brings along several beneficial effects:
- Increased motivation
- Dampened fear
- Feelings of enjoyment
- Desire to repeat the activity
That makes dopamine the perfect companion to those dreaded financial tasks. Whether you’re uninspired by the activity, or downright terrified of making a mistake, dopamine will fix you up.
Rewards generally fall into one of two categories: material and intrinsic. A material reward is giving yourself an actual gift, something you can hold or consume. But they should be carefully considered because not only can they be detrimental to your financial position (jewelry, frequent fancy coffees, dinners on the town), they are not the most effective way to build a habit. Intrinsic rewards, which are comprised of feelings of interest or enjoyment from performing an activity, are more effective in the long run of behavior transformation. But let’s face it, there’s really nothing I can tell you to make completing those procrastinated items on your to do list sound enjoyable. So we find ourselves in need of reprogramming.
That’s where the rewards come in. For me, the dreaded task is paying medical bills. It requires not just payment of vast sums, but determination of the actual amount owed (because medical bills are often totally convoluted.) However, when I know that my completion of that stack of bills will be followed by a meaningful reward, it shifts my whole thinking about an otherwise hated task. It’s like an injection of positivity and the dopamine starts to flow.
One key to creating an effective rewards system is the time lapse between the task and the reward. Immediacy is key when building a habit. Without it, it’s difficult to get your brain to tie the reward to the behavior because the timing is delayed. One way to ensure quick gratification is very effective, even if it eliminates the trigger for your new habit:
Schedule your rewards
I have found great success in a seemingly backward order of occurrences:
- Identify a reward. For me, they are almost always social and need to be scheduled with friends, so I work backwards.
- Schedule the reward
- Back into it by scheduling Money Time right before the social event. This way, I look forward to the event the entire time I’m being productive, eliminating the feelings of dread once associated with this task.
In her book, Carter admits, “I’m also a huge fan of the ‘Yay me!’ reward. Even something as small as a short mental victory dance can trigger a little hit of dopamine, enough to tell your brain to repeat whatever you just did… “ Now I know that saying, “Yay me! I did it again!” probably conjures up images of Stuart Smalley’s mirror affirmations, but at least you can laugh at yourself, and that is its own reward.
Carter also advises against over doing it, your Money Time should not last more than 90 minutes, or scientifically speaking, your brain will turn to mush. Your productivity will wane and you might start to feel insane, so just don’t do important work for too long.
When you fear that you may never be able to change your financial ways, consider the work of Carol Dweck in her book, Mindset. Dweck assures us that we can change if we are open to learning and believing it will help. In her book, she quotes Benjamin Barber, an eminent sociologist: “‘I don’t divide the world into the weak and the strong, or the successes and the failures. I divide the world into the learners and nonlearners.’” This means you are not allowed to hide behind the adage, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks” myth, and you definitely can’t say, “I’ll never change.” This means you can take control of your finances, one Money Time at a time.
When is your next Money Time?
Stay tuned, in October of 2016 we will have an opportunity for you to receive a free copy of Candice McGarvey’s “120 Ways to Reward Yourself” so you can find just the right reward.
