How Awareness Leads to Making Better Choices

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It’s been a few weeks since my last post and I’ve missed writing!

In mid-March and early April I was in Europe for three weeks. One week for work and two weeks for vacation. It was an incredible trip! We visited Barcelona, Paris, Venice, and Rome. I’ll recap those experiences in upcoming blog posts.

April also marks the beginning of baseball season, meaning my side hustle is back! This means some very long days and getting home late a few weeks per month, but it’s something I truly enjoy.

All that being said, that’s why I’ve been a little radio silent the past couple weeks and why my posting may be less consistent throughout the summer.

Today’s post was sparked by a recent trip to the doctor’s office to get my annual physical.

Getting a Wakeup Call

I went in for my annual physical at the doctor and then blood work at a lab. I think of myself as a fairly healthy person. I’m a good weight, I walk the dogs everyday, I do my pushups, and I try to pay attention to what I eat. I wasn’t too worried with what the doctor would have to say.

He started going through my results, and everything was sounding good – until right near the end.

“Your cholesterol is a little high. You should cut back on carbs – pasta, bread, potatoes, rice – and sugar. Also, try to get more exercise.”

While it certainly could’ve been much worse, this was a wakeup call to me. I had thought that as long as I stayed at a healthy weight I could be more relaxed with my diet. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case and it was time to make some changes.

Better Health Choices

Since being told that my cholesterol was a bit high, I’ve been focused on making healthier choices with what I eat. So far so good! Much less dessert, and nearly zero bread, potatoes, pasta, and rice. At times it’s been tough, particularly when it’s bagel day at the office or I see a delicious dessert staring back at me. For the most part though, these small changes haven’t been difficult. I keep reminding myself to take it a day at a time, and I don’t worry about achieving perfection. Gaining awareness has made all the difference in motivating me to be better with my diet and exercise.

Awareness in Finances

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been a saver. Whether it was Halloween candy, packs of baseball cards, or Christmas presents, I have always placed a high importance on delayed gratification. While saving may have come naturally to me, I realize that for many people it can be a struggle.

When we’re struggling to pay the bills and have high amounts of debt, the last thing we want to do is spend more time thinking about it. If we don’t know how much we owe, it can’t really be that bad, right? Unfortunately, it’s likely the opposite. The longer we spend burying our heads in the sand and pretending our finances don’t exist, the more stressful the situation becomes.

Better Financial Choices

It’s hard to confront our problems head on. It took me a long time to finally sit down and write out a budget, because we were barely making enough money to cover our bills. However, once I took this first step, we started to continue making progress on our journey. We kept improving our finances, and last year we were able to kill off the remainder of our $55,000 of debt to reach debt freedom!

For someone who’s looking to improve their finances, my first piece of advice is always to figure out where you’re at. Start tracking your expenses, write out what debts you owe, and write out what accounts you have. At this point, you don’t even need to worry about cutting down expenses, increasing your income, or starting to pay off the debts. First things first, figure out where you’re starting from. The next steps will start to become more clear once you gain this awareness, and this awareness will help push you to make better choices.

Final Thoughts

Gaining awareness of the situation you’re in is the first step to making positive progress. Once you know what to do, it will help lead to better choices. Small steps lead to big results, with money, health, your job, and many other areas in life. For me the hardest part is getting started, but once I get that snowball rolling down the hill, my motivation takes over and it continues to roll. What is the area you need to start making better choices in? What’s the first step you could take to start rolling that snowball down the hill? I’d challenge you to make that happen today, and you’ll surprise yourself in the way you start making better choices after you’ve gained awareness of where you’re starting from.

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