Feb 15th, 2009
Discipline: Another Word for a Daily Struggle
One of my buddies online and in real life had a discussion with me on Twitter about being disciplined with spending. I politely declined her offer of a Diet Pepsi coupon at Costco because I’m cutting back–not for health reasons, but because of the bicycle theft and my need to replace it. She stated she wished she could be as disciplined in terms of spending as I am.
I don’t really consider myself a disciplined person. I like to think I set goals and I try my best to meet them, but I know I fail at many things. I’ve considered most of my failures to be the type Michael Jordan talks about when he succeeds–the necessary failures along the way. But as for spending?
I think that, not all that unlike the alcoholic in sobriety, discipline is in many ways a daily struggle. It’s not unusual to see one of my peers buying a new vehicle or a new cell phone or a new computer and look at my 7 year old truck, my three year old phone, or my now discontinued MacBook and wonder if a life like that of so many others would not be better. But when I look at my budget–and I hear from my friends with huge credit card debt or monthly cell phone bills–I realize that the daily struggle is tough, but worth it, because the worse daily struggle is the one where I’d wonder if I have enough money to make next month’s payments.
It’s not sexy nor is it fun, but it’s what I need to do to make my financial situation the best it can be–if discipline is simply a fancier word for a daily struggle, then that’s what it is and I’ll be disciplined.
