My husband, Dave, is a counselor. (Yes, his occupation has its positives and its negatives for our marriage.) Anyway, he occasionally tags along with me to an Eat Cheap! class to share his two cents on things. One of my favorite illustrations he uses is what has been termed the Thinking, Feeling, Behaving Cycle. It goes like this: We can rationally THINK up a financial goal and KNOW what is best for us. We can set that goal with every confidence of its rationale and benefit. (Example: You decide that $500/month is what your family is best able to spend for groceries each month.) Then, we enter the store and are bombarded with things that make us FEEL like we maybe made the wrong choice. Our emotions start to enter the picture, and we doubt the goal that we so logically set. (Example: Because youve been so busy, you toy with the idea that eating out a couple of times one week is really in your best interest because you feel so tired and overwhelmed.) We have a choice in how we BEHAVE at this point. We can set aside the intelligent plan we made to cater to our emotions OR we can recognize that--in spite of the way we are currently feeling--our original goal is truly in our best interest and that we need to stick with the plan. (Example: Whats more important to you: The integrity of your long-term goal of finanacial freedom or the pleasure of your short-term goal of an easy meal?) This, my friends, is why self-control is so difficult. Our emotions color our perception of the circumstances and distort the picture a little bit. And, if you think about it, this cycle applies outside of the grocery store and in just about every area of life--marital relationships, work relationships, etc.
Posted on: Fri, 18 Jul 2014 10:30:00 +0000
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