🤠 How to Keep Yourself Safe on a Saturday Night

 Day 44:   Stick To Your Plan

by Edward Smith

18 Aug 2020

Achieve Your Goals by Becoming a Goalie

In this article I want to acknowledge that sticking to a plan is hard to do.  It's not that you can't do it.  You can.  It's that you might not want to do it all of the time.     

Goal setting can be like being a soccer goalie.   When you start out a game, you are fresh and awake.  Ready to go.  Alert.   Being a goalie can be exhausting.  The other players are relentless.  You can't let your guard down.  You have to lunge.  You have to jump.  You have to be willing to do whatever it takes to defend your goal.   

If you don't, people will score.  That's kind of how the game works.  It doesn't matter if the shot happens at the beginning of the game or at the end of the game.   A point is still a point no matter when it happens, and that point could cost you the entire game.   

Goal setting works the same way.  One false move, and kaput.   So what do you do about it?

The Morning You Relies Upon the Evening You

I'm like a goalie.  In the morning, I wake up refreshed and motivated.  I'm eager to attack my goal.  I'll write things down, set up a plan, and even describe how it has to go in detail.   

For instance I might decide that this month I'm going to stay on budget with my beer buying.  I'll bust out my calculator.  I'll determine how many weeks there are in the month, and then I'll divvy up my money between the weeks.   Easy.  Problem solved.    

That is until my evening me wakes up.   My evening me works the night hours as a professional saboteur.

Restricted Minds Just Want to Have Fun

Here is how things go wrong in my head.  

I'm good for several hours.  Sometimes all the way through lunch and into the late afternoon.  I'm a man of integrity.  Nothing tempts me.  Nothing stops me.

After that, something starts to falter and go the wrong way.  I begin to envision myself having fun in inappropriate ways.  I stop caring about the consequences.   I begin to rationalize bad things.  I become okay with being bad.   Soccer balls shoot past me.  The other team starts to win.  I'm not doing my job.

It's like my brain gets tired of having to be responsible all of the time.   Nobody else has to follow the rules.  How come I do?  My brain starts screaming unfair!  It revolts.  It doesn't want to do it anymore.  Enough is enough.  

Party time!  

These party's are a bad idea though.   I can't afford them.   I need a chaperone.   I have to jump in and run interference.  This is how I do it.   

Party Like It's 1996!

When I get over my head, and find myself wanting to do something stupid with money because I'm bored, I know it's time to slow the whole thing down and scale things back.  When I'm bored, the worst thing I can do at the moment is to spend more money on entertainment.  

Truth is, I hate myself in the morning when I do it, and I usually don't even enjoy it like I expect to.  

Major buyer's remorse dude!  

My high school me was smarter.   

Once upon a time I lived at home with my parents.  I had a car, but I didn't have a lot of money for gas.  I didn't drink.  I wasn't able to go out every weekend, because I didn't have the money or permission to do it.  I survived on less and I still had a lot of fun.   Maybe more fun then I do now. 

Friends helped make this work.

Friends Make You Better

Some of my best memories are with my friends.   We worked hard to make the weekends amazing.  We were selective, and we planned things out.   It was a team effort.   

It wasn't always extravagant.   We saved up and did meaningful things.  We'd hit special coffee houses.   We'd play cards.  We would walk together and talk.  We might bust out a box of dominoes or a good board game.  

We went to the mall.  Sometimes we cooked at the house, or we would watch a scary movie together.  Sharing time can be inexpensive.  That doesn't mean it's not extremely valuable.   

Conclusion   

You don't need a fancy budget to have a good time.   Call up your friends. Go to the beach.  Play football.   Walk in a park.   Go fishing.  Hike.  Carpool.   Drive around town.  Listen to music.   Go on a road trip.  Learn something together.

Your distracted you, is a better version of you, when it comes to completing goals.  It doesn't have time to get off track, because it's already busy doing something.   Friends also work as a great support network. You can bring them up to speed on how things are going, they care about it, and can give you honest feedback.   

Don't do things alone.   Pick up the phone!   Call a friend, and make the weekend great!