Upsize your wallet by downsizing your living quarters

May 29, 2014

Upsize your wallet by downsizing your living quarters

Downsizing a home isn’t only for retirees and empty nesters. In today’s economic environment, downsizing a home can make a lot of financial sense.

Companies habitually shut down sub-performing facilities, discontinue product lines, or take other drastic measures to free up the firm’s finances. Intelligent damage control. The same thing occurs, on a smaller and much more personal scale, when you downsize your living quarters.

A smaller home could mean a smaller price – and a smaller payment. If you lose your job, wouldn’t a 50 percent smaller payment on your house, condo or flat be nice? And if you don’t lose your job? How about all that you can undertake with a bit of extra cash in the till?

A monthly mortgage payment or even rent is generally the largest single expenditure people face. It regularly accounts for 30% or more of the monthly expenses. Downsizing your living quarters can have a dramatic and direct effect on those expenses. At the very least, it can result in a significant reduction in your monthly expenditures, a significant increase in your free cash flow and massive savings in interest if you are paying back a loan. And what about the attractive opportunity of using the proceeds from the sale of your larger home to buy a smaller one obviously resulting in a much smaller mortgage. Or maybe no mortgage at all…

So by downsizing your living quarters, you may be upsizing your lifestyle!

The Yellow Brick Road Toward Change

The Yellow Brick Road toward Change

 Take a moment to check out the changes you’d like to make in your life. Some changes are pretty easy to target, like weight loss and smoking. Even though some changes are easy to target, they AREN’T easy to complete. They seem almost out of reach.

But remember the saying  „A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step“.

While we may have a goal, we must also develop habits that get us there. Old habits are hard to break and new habits are hard to form because the behavioral patterns we repeat are imprinted in our neural pathways, yet it is possible to form new habits through repetition. Lally et al. (2010) found the average time for participants to reach the asymptote of automaticity was 66 days with a range of 18–254 days.

As the habit is forming, it can be analyzed in three parts: the cue, the behavior, and the reward.

1)   The cue is the thing that causes your habit to come about, the trigger to your habitual behavior. This could be anything that the mind associates with that habit and will automatically let a habit come to the surface.

2)   The behavior is the actual habit that is exhibited and

3)  the reward, a positive feeling.

Habits can either benefit or hurt the goals a person sets.

When going for a change, you have to develop a clear idea of what you want to achieve. What is going to be different that it is now?

If you want to lose weight, you can limit yourself to 700 calories per day in order to lose 40 pounds. Or you could start passing by the dessert and eating two servings of vegetables. The second way of changing is easier and more pleasurable. And you “suffer” less, which is better for your motivation.

Step 1: Make a list of the improvements or goals (changes) you would like to achieve within the next year.

Step 2: Map a multi-level plan that begins with where you are now and where you want to be when the transformation has been achieved.

Step 3: Let the people who love/like you and you trust know what you are trying to achieve. Enlist their help and support for the project(-s).

From Who You Are, To Who You Want To Be

I see behaviour change as the process of moving yourself from who you are, to who you want to be.

Who You Are ---------------------Who You Want To Be

Behaviour change is a process, not a switch.

It’s like learning how to play an instrument, or speak a new language.

Deciding today to learn the piano doesn’t mean tomorrow you’ll wake up and play Rachmaninov.

Deciding today to change yourself doesn’t mean tomorrow you’ll wake up and be a different person. You may FEEL better about yourself but nothing has changed yet. Don't get caught in this "feel good for nothing" limbo!

The most important thing is to know that you can use techniques and practice and repetition to get better at changing yourself.

Some of the most compelling work on identity is happening in, of all places, the 3-D virtual world Second Life. When people create online identities in these simulated spaces, few stray far from representing themselves as they actually are. And there's growing evidence that the more an avatar looks like you, the more you bond with it, and the more it may influence how you view yourself. Jeremy Bailenson, PhD, who founded Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, helped discover that if a person sees diet and exercise making her avatar thinner, she'll feel more compelled to eat right and work out in the real world. It doesn't take long. Spending about five minutes with your avatar—watching her run on a treadmill, for instance—may lead to changes in what you think you're capable of accomplishing.

The Elements of Successful Behaviour Change

A one-size-fits-all formula for behavior change is impossible. Every change is different – compare starting a flossing habit with going from a couch potato to training for your first marathon.

BJ Fogg’s Behavior Grid describes the 15 ways behavior can change really succinctly. Trying to script a formula for all 15 is a mistake.

Here's the plan:

1. Get your head right
2. Set the right goal
3. Set the right activities
4. Feedback and regular review (Are you still on the right track?)

The first element, and probably the most overlooked, is creating the right mindset for change. Most people fail at change before they start because they haven’t set the right expectations for the change process.

There are some general points to consider setting your expectations of change correctly.

1.    I can get better at this.

2.    The journey, not the destination.

3.    Don’t pretend you have a different life.

4.    Start now.

5.    Expect disruption.

6.    Expect failure.

7.    Remove guilt.

8.    Be patient.

The second element is setting the right goal. Another major reason people fail is because they set a goal that isn’t right for them. It might be impossible or unrealistic or it might be something they don’t want or aren’t willing to do.

Assuming your expectations are reasonable and you’ve set an appropriate goal, the third element is determining with sufficient specificity the activities that will move you towards your goal.

The final element is regular review, both of your activities, and your goal. You have to take what you learn as you’re going to adjust your goals and your activities.

The cycle of these elements is ongoing. The regular process of review will allow you to calibrate your mindset, which will allow you to better define the right goals for you, which will require you to adjust the activities you’re doing, which will require regular review… and so on and so forth…

I can get better at this.

This is the fundamental belief you'll need to start changing. It’s not the same as thinking – “I can change” – which might actually work against you. It’s the mindset that whatever you’re going for, the goal is progress, not perfection.

It’s the journey, not the destination.
 
 



Go for it!  

Big doors swing on little hinges

Big doors swing on little hinges - W.Clement Stone

There are a lot of ways to make a difference in your life by introducing (and cultivating) small changes. Most of us know how to improve our lives and also have the means to do so. Yet we often fail to take action.

I'll bet you could write down right now at least ten ways to improve your life. Go on - JUST DO IT!

Of course, it is not easy or practical to add many new habits to your day. But you could build up a single new routine fairly comfortably. You take a series of small changes and build a ritual that you follow daily.

Your goal is to simply focus on a single routine that only takes about 15 - 30 minutes to complete. Perhaps not even that long. Within this routine is a series of actions. Create a checklist and follow it every single day.

Sometimes the smallest of actions can make a huge difference in your life. As Stephen Guise wrote (Mini Habits: Small Habits, Bigger Results), you can stick to a larger habit while starting "stupidly small" by creating a very simple/easy-to-reach mini-goal. The aim of a mini-habit is to be consistent. By doing your mini-goals every day (and perhaps going for even more while you're at it), you take small steps toward the End-Goal.

I am working on
-fruit every day (toward my goal of eating exceptionally well)
-one full pushup (toward my goal of having strong muscles)
-eating small meals (toward my goal of being slender)

Here is how you go about it:

Step 1: Choose your Mini-Habit. Solidly develop ONE habit that is "stupid (silly)  small".

Step 2: Use the Why Drill on each Mini-Habit: Identify why you want each Mini-Habit (that will eventually lead to the larger goal).

Step 3: Define your habit cues: What sets off the urge to do the bad habit and when does that happen. For desired habits, decide when and where you are going to do them.  Attach the mini-habits to an established routine like getting up or having breakfast. (As soon as I get up, I will...)

Step 4: Create your reward plan
Celebrating wins is the most effective strategy for making us feel good about our lives. It motivates us to do the desired behavior again and again. The idea is to appreciate the small, positive steps that bring us toward our goal. Pat yourself on the back each and every time you carry out your mini-goals.

 Step 5: Keep track in a dairy, calender or some other easily accessible device. Use the 'habit streak plan app'.

Everything is a process; a series of small changes in a consistent direction. Once we realize this, we have the power to change almost anything. And it remains palatable.

And what "stupidly simple" habit are you cultivating?

Dr. Phil: "How's That Working for You?"

Life is about choices. If you decide to spend more time on your career, your family may suffer. If you decide to spend more time with your family, your career may suffer. The choice is yours, but you must choose. Even not choosing is a choice.

Again, if you're not getting the outcome you want, your motivation doesn't matter. Have you punished your teenager to keep her from hanging with the wrong crowd only to discover that she's been sneaking out to do drugs? You may have the right intentions, but what you're doing isn't working. Maybe you're a tyrannical boss who demands perfection, but you can't keep good employees. That's not working either.

Imagine seeing someone facing a wall and just banging his head against it, over and over. The wall isn't moving, and his head is turning into hamburger, but he keeps on banging. You'd think he was nuts, right? That's exactly what you're doing when you make bad choices and then keep making them because…well, just because. You don't need a year of therapy to figure this out: If you're not getting more of what you want and less of what you don't, then it's not working.

If you're resistant to taking a good look at yourself, it's possible that you're a "right fighter": one of those people who spend far too much energy convincing the rest of the world that they're right. They're right as parents, they're right at work, they're right in their relationships, they're right about politics—and they are all too ready to fight about just how right they are. These insecure people are too fragile to ask themselves how things are working for them, because they might not like the answer one bit. It might mean making a change or admitting they've been (dare I say it?) wrong.

Doing what works requires insight and courage; it's easier to keep doing exactly what you've done before. Getting out of your comfort zone can be frightening, even if your comfort zone isn't really so comfortable. But if you want something different, then you have to do something different.

You can choose to be right…or you can choose to be happy. I vote for the latter—but hey, it's your call. The next time you get frustrated with your results, though, look in the mirror and ask yourself, How's that working for you?