Why Runners Have an Inside Track to Fiscal Fitness

This is guest post from Carrie Starr… her bio and information follow the post.
I love her comparison of physical discipline and financial discipline.

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My phone vibrates loudly against the hard wood of my nightstand.

I grope in the dark to retrieve the noisy interrupter of my dreams.

Against my will, I swing my legs off the bed and my feet hit the floor.

I am off and running. Literally. Three miles, everyday at 6am. It’s a habit.

Those routines we practice on a regular basis define our lives. Self-discipline is never easy, but it’s always rewarding.

For me, it didn’t start with running. It started with cash.

Growing up in a single parent household, we always struggled financially. I learned early on that I would have to live differently than my friends.

While I often resented not having brand name clothes or HBO or my own car, living on less became a habit. That habit has now defined and blessed my life. It has also blessed my marriage.

Just as I’ve trained myself to move my body out of bed when the alarm goes off, I’ve also trained myself to stop and think before making a purchase. I wait until the item I want goes on sale. I compare the price of similar items at other stores to ensure I am paying the lowest price possible. Sometimes I simply say “no” and walk away empty handed.

I’ve trained myself to remember that when I say “no” to a purchase that I don’t need, I am saying “yes” to something else I want more down the road.

Learning to live on less than you make takes training. The same discipline that propels my body down the road each morning incites me to keep a written record of what I spend. Just as the scale tells me I’m being effective with my exercise, my budget tells me if I’m being effective with my spending and savings.

If you have the discipline to be a runner, you have the discipline to be fiscally fit as well. It starts with intentional choices to spend according to your priorities and track your progress.

If you lack self-control, it is never too late to grow and learn. Discover that area of your life where you make sacrifices to get what you want. Direct that same energys  toward your finances.

Just as with any form of exercise,
start simple and celebrate each step of success.

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Have you noticed a correlation between your physical and financial discipline?

 

Carrie Starr is the author of Cheap Love: Living and Loving on Less.  She is a married mother of three who runs daily, loves deeply and spends wisely.  You can check out her blog at Cheap Love and follow her on Twitter @CheapLoveCarrie.