How Do I Make These Financial Habits Actually Stick?

You've learned so many powerful tools and taken really brave steps.

You've embraced budgeting and saving and tackling debt.

You've been tracking spending and you're even giving generously.

You know what to do.

But how do you make these habits a consistent part of your life month after month and year after year, so that peace actually lasts?

Well, stick with me because I've got answers on today's show.

This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence.

Hey there and welcome back to your daily Financially Confident Christian show.

I'm Ralph and we're here to answer that question, how can I become a financially confident Christian?

We're just about at the end of our series dealing with the stress of money wars.

Just a couple episodes left and we've covered so many crucial topics as we work to build this toolkit, if you will, managing your money with wisdom and managing with fate.

We've got a lot of tools and as we near the end of our series, the question isn't any longer, what should we do?

We kind of know what those things are.

But now the question is, you're probably thinking this right now yourself, Ralph.

How do I keep doing it, Ralph?

How do I turn these powerful actions that you've taught us into lasting habits?

Because I want to have that ongoing peace and I want to have that ongoing freedom.

So let's tackle that question on the show today.

How do I make these financial habits actually stick for the long haul?

And I'm gonna tell you right now, I'm gonna equate this to something I'm going through myself.

For many years, I've battled my health, I've battled weight, and I've battled diabetes, high blood sugar.

And just recently, about four or five months ago, I really decided, hey, I've got to do something about this.

For me, I went to the eye doctor and the eye doctor said, hey, Ralph, you're having some problems in your eyes, so you got to get that blood sugar down.

So I went and met with the doctor and I got one of those constant glucose meters.

You stick it in your arm every 10 days and the data pops right up on my watch.

So I always know where I'm at.

And I thought about that really applies to what we're talking about here because I got inspired.

You know, you may have gotten inspired when you started doing your budgeting.

You tracked every dollar.

You made those extra debt payments.

That feels great.

Felt great for me when I started Saying, hey, look, I can make an impact here.

It feels great for a few weeks, but then if you're like me, like most other people, life just gets busy and then you forget to track a few things.

Maybe you miss a budget check in, and then all of a sudden your motivation dips.

And before you know it, if you're like me, you're back in your old patterns, feeling that similar money stress creep back in.

See, the struggle here is really inconsistency.

And I've dealt with that my whole life.

Always inconsistent.

I was one of those yo yo dieters, up and down with weight.

Well, the same thing goes for our finances.

That feeling of starting and stopping, that is a major struggle.

And I know it leads to frustration and you feel like you're undoing your progress.

And maybe for you, if you're listening right now, you have this really discouraging belief.

You might be saying to yourself, I'm just not good with the money.

Or maybe even worse, you're saying, oh, you know what, Ralph?

It just lasting financial peace just not attainable for me.

But here's the thing I need you to understand today.

If you're going to build lasting habits, and I don't care what area of life you're talking about, if you want to build lasting habits, and I'm learning this myself with this weight and this, managing my health and lifting weights, it requires three things in my view, effort, intentionality, and grace.

And you have to be willing to accept something that a lot of us don't want to accept, and that is not perfection.

So you're going to miss a day, you're going to make mistakes, you're going to go over your budget.

Sometimes that's okay.

I look at my blood sugar number, and sometimes I make bad decisions or I don't get in all the exercise I wanted to get in that day, I made a mistake and I got to get back up and start again tomorrow.

The same works for your finances.

The key is always don't let those moments derail you completely.

Let's get into the Bible and talk about some faithfulness and perseverance we see there.

Let's look at the Book of Galatians, chapter 6, verse 9.

It says this, and I love this verse, Galatians, let us not become weary in doing good.

For at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Think about that for a second.

For at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

And see, I'm thinking about that in my health, if I don't give up, if I do that every day.

This morning I was down in the gym putting in the reps.

Well, that applies to your financial habits as well.

It's that consistent effort.

Even when you're imperfect, even when you go over your budget, it's going to happen.

But if you're consistent about that even being imperfect, you will reap a harvest of greater peace and you will reap a harvest of greater freedom over time.

Just think about the book of Luke, chapter 16, verse 10.

I'm not going to cover the whole thing there right now, but it reminds us to be faithful with very little.

And you might be saying, Ralph, how does that happen?

Well, it comes through consistent practice.

Look at Romans, chapter 12, verse 2.

Building financial habits is a process of renewing your mind and your actions every day.

Training yourself in diligence and training yourself in self control.

And don't forget this part, relying on God's strength.

Listen, I'm losing weight, I'm getting in shape.

It's not all me doing it, it's God's strength.

And another big thing, a big takeaway from today, you gotta accept his grace when you stumble.

Because let me tell you right now, you're a human being, you will stumble.

So you might be saying, hey Rob, what can we do?

How do we move from this cycle of starting and stopping?

I feel like that's all I do.

I'm on this treadmill of starting and stopping.

I push the button to stop, I push it to start, but I just keep going and I just can't, I can't seem to get out of that cycle.

How do we get past that Ralph, to build a consistent, sustainable financial rhythm?

Because I need that stress reduced over time.

Well, I've got the answer and here's my big answer for today.

Focus on establishing a simple, repeatable financial routine.

We are routine based people.

So if you can find and establish a simple, repeatable financial routine and then practice that grace over perfection, consistently put in the effort and leverage some accountability, which we're gonna talk about those things in a few minutes, that will help you create a system to stay on track even when that motivation is low, when that motivation starts to wane.

And the last part of this, as I mentioned a few minutes ago, give yourself grace when you stumble.

So here's your one action step for today.

Just one thing.

I want you to identify your core habits.

We've talked about a lot of these.

Choose one or two core financial habits from this series.

Or for example Maybe one of the things that you really want to work on is that weekly budget check in.

It's important to you.

Or maybe you really want to focus on that daily spending tracking because you find yourself getting off the rails on your spending.

Or maybe for you, you've got that mountain of debt and you really want to focus on those debt payments.

I want you to choose just one or two of those financial habits from these series and then the next thing I want you to do, I want you to schedule them and be very specific.

Open up your calendar and schedule recurring time slots for these habits.

The best way to do that is treat them like non negotiable appointments.

For example, here's a great way to look at this.

Every Sunday at 7pm to 7:15pm I'm going to do a weekly budget review.

I'm going to go actually look at the data because a couple of things that does right it holds me accountable.

I've got to go look and make sure I'm tracking my information and then I'm going to compare it to the budget I put together.

So that's piece two.

Do I have a budget?

Have I tracked the information?

Then I'm going to put it in the calendar every Sunday, 7pm Just give myself 15 minutes and do that weekly budget review.

Or maybe for you it's tracking that daily spending.

Well, here's a great idea.

Put a phone reminder on every night before you go to bed.

The reminder goes off and say, hey, did you track your spending today?

So define one or two things and then put it on your calendar.

Third thing I'm going to encourage you to do is you've got listen as I record this.

I'm learning to do this myself.

I'm really going off script these days and if you're hearing it, I apologize.

But you have to embrace imperfection and practice Grace.

It's so hard for us sometimes.

If you miss one of those critical factors, just pick up again and remind yourself.

It's so easy as human beings to get ourselves down when we miss a day.

But we one miss isn't failure, it's just not.

Listen, tomorrow, if I get up tomorrow morning and I don't feel great and I don't do my cardiovascular exercise tomorrow, that's not a failure.

Maybe it's a failure for that day, but I get back up the next day and the next day.

See, this is all about practicing what I'll call self compassion.

Have compassion for yourself.

You're going to have off days financially, you're going to have off situations, but just keep going.

Now the final thing I think when you which will be really helpful to you is find or maybe you already have one, Find or reconnect with accountability.

I mentioned this on the show a few weeks ago.

Reach out to someone you trust and share your goals and check in with them regularly.

Because here's a deal, and I know this firsthand.

My doctor checks in with me and he's my accountability.

My watch, it tells me what my blood sugar is every five minutes.

Guess what?

I got a ton of accountability.

The truth is accountability increases the follow through.

It's going to keep you on point.

Now why are all these things helping you always like to give you reasons.

This helps because it addresses that inconsistency.

That's the thing that makes most people fail.

They're not consistent.

The other thing I love about this structure is it actually brings structure.

It helps you put things into a plan, into a structure.

And that grace, that grace for yourself, it removes that pressure.

Because you can have a bad day, you can have a bad budget day, you can go over your budget and you just have to start back.

Listen, don't wait till next Monday, don't wait till the end of the month.

Start back right away.

As soon as you notice that you're off course, get back on track.

And that accountability person, that accountability system that boost your encouragement.

When I look down on my watch and my blood sugar is great, I'm like, hey, cool.

And that continues that momentum because here's the truth.

All these things together, they can create lasting change.

And that lasting change because of that daily consistency will bring long term financial peace.

Well, let's pray together.

Father God, we just thank you for the grace that you extend to us each and every day.

Grace we truly don't deserve.

Lord, we just ask that you would help us build and help us maintain those consistent financial habits.

We ask that you would strengthen our discipline and remind us to schedule what matters, Lord, and most important, teach us to give ourselves grace when we do fall short, because we are going to fall short.

Lord, you told us in your word that all have sinned and fallen short.

But give us that grace, Lord, and give us that courage to start again in faith.

And Lord, we just thank you for the gift of accountability.

Help us persevere and grow in peace.

And we ask this with confidence In Jesus name, Amen.

Listen, lasting financial peace doesn't come from perfection.

If you're looking for perfection, you're going to be unfortunately mistaken.

You're never going to find doesn't exist.

But lasting financial peace does come from consistent habits.

So choose your habits, schedule them and show up for them.

You're building something powerful.

And if you need more help, I'm going to encourage you to go to the website that's financially confidentchristian.com and I've got a special gift right there for you.

For the first hundred listeners to give you a free copy of my book.

It's called Mastering your Finances.

You can get that by going to financiallyconfidentchristian.com master.

It's a quick read, but let me just tell you right now, if you put in the time and read that it's 47 pages, it will directly impact you.

Now, tomorrow, as we really wrap up this series, we're going to talk about how to bring all the pieces together.

It's kind of like amazing.

I'm going to help you put them all together over the next two episodes.

So I want to encourage you.

Don't miss it.

Let's all go out there and be financially confident Christians.

You can do this.

I believe in you.

Have some grace and believe in yourself.

Stay financially savvy.

God bless you and you have a great day today.

Thank you for joining us today on the Financially Confident Christian show, where we're breaking the cycle of financial shame with confidence and FAI faith.

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