This is a guest post.
Telling lies to ourselves is one of the most common things we do. Whether they are about our health, our diet or our finances, we are always telling some small lies to ourselves to keep ourselves satisfied with our efforts, however meek they seem to be. While we realize that lying regularly is bad, we just cannot give the habit up successfully. So, here is a new approach for you to try; don’t stop lying altogether, just turn around your bad lies into good lies.
Yes, there are some lies that can actually be good and can help us getting closer to our goals without feeling too bad about them. When it comes to your financial goals, some ways of fibbing with yourself can actually help you in getting closer to your goals and make a difference to your money management.
How to Separate Good Lies From Bad Ones
Before you start, it is important for you to know how to differentiate between a good and a bad lie. The first indication to that is your gut feeling or intuition. All of us are smart enough to realize what is good for us and what isn’t. If your lies are making you avoid the truth altogether or justifying your actions with more lies, it is definitely not a good one.
Good lies are the ones that actually make you acknowledge that a stumble was made and that you will make your best effort in the future to rectify it, giving you a confidence to do a better job of achieving your goals the next time. Once you know that you are not going on the right track, you will actually look for ways to do better next time.
For example, if you have debt issues you can try the debt to income ratio calculator at Consolidated Credit to know how much debt you can actually afford on your income rather than lying to yourself that it doesn’t matter.
How to Spot Good Lies and Bad Lies
The simplest way to know whether a lie is good or bad is to ask if it can help you move towards your goal or it takes you towards a path of denial. The most common lies we tell ourselves when it comes to our finances are regarding something we wanted to achieve but a slip was made, making it difficult to do that now. The idea of failure in getting to our goals makes us lie, telling us that it does not matter. This denial is one of the worst ways of lying to ourselves since if it didn’t mattered, it wouldn’t have been our goal in the first place.
Good lies on the other hand let you focus on the positive side of the situation, telling you that it did matter and you will work harder to keep on track the next time. Rather than telling yourself that saving can leave you with less to spend, you can lie to yourself that you are getting paid less from now on and you should adjust your spending accordingly.
Another most common situation where we lie to ourselves is when we are confronted with our debts. Before you keep up mounting your debt every month, check your own spending to see if you’re getting into trouble with credit cards or other types of debt. Telling yourself that how much you earn is not related with your amount of debt is not a good thing to do. Rather tell yourself that from now on will make a budget and keep on it and try to pay off your debt. Sometimes, its easy to get frustrated when thinking solely in terms of goals, but you have to keep to what you want to get there!
Bad lies make you avoid the consequences of your actions by rendering you in a state of denial about your real financial situation at the current time. These lies can not only hurt you, but others too. Rather than giving you a renewed confidence of moving towards your goals, they actually take you further away from them.
So, while it is alright to buy your lies sometimes, it should only be done when these lies are not harmful for your future and will not lead you to more lies. Also, even the good lies should be kept to a minimum. If you keep lying repeatedly, you’ll eventually start believing them a bit too much. Though some lies can help you move towards your financial goals, don’t make a habit of lying, no matter whether good or bad.
Author’s Bio:
CJ is a financial advisor who specializes in providing personal finance and debt management advice. She believes that, If you want to keep your debt under control, try the debt to income ratio calculator at Consolidated Credit to know how much debt you can handle right now
It sounds a little too complicated to me. I just did a post on goal setting, and then achieving that goal. Want to get out of debt, live well, retire early? Define your goal, then take the steps to do it.
My lie? “We’re living under a budget.” Ha. Maybe a year ago, maybe even six months ago, but definitely not in the past few months. I’ve let that go, yet I’ve convinced myself we’re still budgeting.