Measuring success.
You may have noticed that I’ve been a little MIA on here. I took a test yesterday and have spent the last few weeks dedicating myself to studying the materials. Because of this test, I’ve been reflecting on how we measure our success. As with most tests, there was a binary measurement: pass or fail. It didn’t matter how well I did or the score I got, it just mattered that I passed the test.
Not everything in life is so clear. Sometimes measuring our success can be a little murkier. In my work with clients, we create debt payoff plans and goals and use paying down/off debt as the metric of success. But lately I’ve been thinking that it might not be the best, and it’s certainly not the only, metric for success.
Paying off debt helps in a few ways. It increases net worth, it lowers liabilities, it improves credit scores, and it leads to a life with less stress. We can track our progress in paying down debt by looking at numbers on a page and those numbers changing. You might have had $50,000 of debt and now you have $30,000. That is absolutely a success and a fair way to measure it. But, what happens when that’s the only way we measure it and we experience slower, or no progress for a period of time? It can feel disheartening and be as good a reason as any to give up.
At the beginning of this year, I set a handful of goals. One of my goals was to read 22 books in 2022. Last year, I only read a few books, and this year, I wanted to do better. With 22 books, I would need to average about two books a month. I remember telling a friend about my goal and how I was worried I wouldn’t find the time to read all these books. He reframed my goal and suggested that instead I “enjoy” 22 books this year. That simple reframe allowed me to give myself the permission to enjoy them by reading them myself, listening to audiobooks, or by being read to (my husband and I are currently reading a book to each other!). By reframing what it meant to read these books, I can still make progress towards the ultimate goal (consuming more literature) without feeling like I am not succeeding because of my initial method and metric.
Can you think of ways to reframe your metrics of success when it comes to finances? Perhaps, if your metric was paying off debt or building up savings, you can reframe it to “I am feeling more confident about my money” or “I am feeling in control of my money situation.” Perhaps you might measure success by how you handled a similar situation before taking control compared to how you handle that situation now. You might even give yourself permission to acknowledge the simple, but tremendous, mindset shifts you’ve made. All of this is success. If you find yourself feeling stuck because of the metric you’ve set out, look for other ways to measure your success and be sure to find something that you can acknowledge yourself for!
I am pleased to report I passed my exam! It was one component of the certification process to become an accredited financial counselor (AFC). I realized that while the test success itself was binary, I found success in that I built confidence as a financial coach and learned new things I can share with you.