Frugal Living: Master Personal Growth
Why did you choose to be frugal? The most common answer is “to save money.” Saving money is a good idea. For most of us, saving money is the primary benefit and, therefore, the working definition of being frugal. Could there be more than one benefit? …. There certainly is! As we learn to be frugal, it becomes apparent that the same management principles and practices that apply to saving money can be used to enhance our use of time and talent. Being frugal can lead to personal growth.
You may not become frugal to master personal growth, but it is an outcome for many.
Why does it work that way? It’s because people adopting a frugal lifestyle often need to work through financial problems, especially overwhelming debt. After they experience success with that, they realize they can do more. They can now save money, but very few people want to save money to stockpile money. They want to do something with it that enhances their life.
“Doing something” involves time, talent, and intellect – all traits a person learns to practice with growing efficiency as they use frugal living principles to pay off debt. Since you’ve developed them, you can use these traits for greater endeavors. Using frugal living to master personal growth (or development) is the next logical step.
Personal development is what you do to make yourself a better person. (And you get to define what “better” means.) You can return to school, travel, learn a foreign language, spend more time with your family, build a business (start it as a side gig, maybe?)… The list of possibilities is endless. Do things you want to do on your terms.
Would you like to master personal development? Review why you chose to adopt a frugal lifestyle and keep reading.
Why Did You Choose To Be Frugal
It’s about money. Either you wanted to get out of debt, or you wanted your money to do more for you. Either way, you wanted more control over your money. You had to learn and practice skills that involved determining priorities and order to accomplish that. You set goals and developed step-by-step plans to achieve them. You exercised conservation and patience… You mastered decision-making processes, planning, and problem-solving. That success is your personal growth. After solving your financial problem, you realize your frugal practices are actually among the benefits of frugal living.
Think about it: You trade your life (usually through work) to acquire money. Much of your money then is spent on things that are important to you. Those things may be tangible or intangible, but as important as they are, most of them are mundane, and the “pursuit” of them consumes your time and talent. Your personal growth–the planning and execution skills you acquired as you rescued your finances can be employed in any area of your life. Because you are efficient, you can spend, consume less, of yourself and your resources as you pursue your dreams.
Possibilities
Personal growth allows people to assess their skillsets and qualities. They can determine their purpose in life. (Often, it involves a “better” version of themselves.) You can set goals to realize and maximize your potential.
If you think about it, personal growth is about where you want to be in five, ten, twenty, or thirty years. What do you want to accomplish? Are you keeping to the timeline?
You can retire early, do mission work, or travel.
You can send your children or grandchildren through college.
These things and many others can fall under the definition of personal growth.
Most People Won’t Bother
It’s disturbing to think about, but most people won’t take control of their own lives. They don’t want the hassle of making a budget or working with a spending journal.
Maybe they don’t like saying no to themselves or their children.
Consider this: The average person works and sleeps. Maybe they take a vacation, but it’s the same old grind day in and day out, year after year. They live in a small world. Frugal living makes way for you to live larger. You can pursue your dreams by planning for them and focusing on them, just as if they were any other financial endeavor….because they are.
How To Master Personal Growth
Personal growth is a process by which you develop and expand your abilities. Therefore,
frugal living, by definition, is personal growth. Here’s why: You learn how to save money, budget, track spending, set goals, and improve your decision-making skills. You know how to plan. Frugal living “grows” you into a financially responsible person. The skills you attain from living frugally can be useful in most endeavors that require a plan of action.
Frugal living is about deciding where you want to be in the future (X number of years). What do you want to have accomplished? How are you doing with the timeline? Do you need to tweak the steps in your plan to achieve it?
Decide what you want out of life and plan, focus and work towards it. Make plans. Set short and long-range goals. Then follow through with appropriate action. Your personal growth occurs as you move towards the goal–in accomplishing the steps and overcoming obstacles along the way.
A Cautionary Note: Be Real
The whole point of personal growth is to achieve your goal(s). Set reasonable goals. Too often, people set goals that are not reasonable. As a result, they don’t finish. I am not telling you to avoid challenging goals. I am saying you don’t want to set yourself up for defeat. Also, it’s important to realize you are not competing against others. You are working toward something meaningful to you, something that enhances you, changes you, “grows” you.
Be prepared to work: If you took to frugal living to get out of debt, you know that took work. Why would it be different in any other worthwhile endeavor?
After you have set your goals, be positive. Gear your actions toward the culmination of your goal.
Don’t sabotage yourself through stagnation. Making goal-oriented actions is important. Otherwise, you accomplish nothing. Don’t dwell on how easy it would be just to let go. Think about what the reward (and glory?) will be when you complete the task.
When you accomplish a goal, already be working on the next one.
Bringing It All Together
In Frugal Living: Master Personal Growth. We’ve talked about how frugal living practices foster personal growth. It is a process:
You decide what you want your outcome to be.
You set goals.
You plan and focus on the goals.
You set and take the necessary steps to accomplish your goals.
You realize you’ll be challenged, but the “better” you is worth it.
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