Welcome to Under 2, an email series delivering short insights to empower your money life – in 2 minutes or less.
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As we embark on a new year, it’s natural to set resolutions, intentions, and goals. It’s also natural for those resolutions and grand plans to fall to the wayside a few weeks or months into the year. We get sick, we forget, unexpected problems or distractions arise.
What happens next, though, is crucial.
Quitting is a decision; being a quitter is an identity.
And believing something fundamental about who we are is a more permanent and impactful fixture in our mind. When we label ourselves with things like “I’m just bad with money,” “I’m terrible at sticking to goals,” or even “I’m a big spender at Target,” then guess how we’ll continue to behave? We subconsciously let ourselves off the hook on keeping track of the finances and blow gobs of money at Target, with that story of what kind of person we are running quietly in the background.
This is because our brains automatically want to act in ways that align with who we see ourselves to be. Studies even show different behavior from people in response to identity-based language. For example, in one study, more people registered and turned out to vote who had completed a survey that included language tied to personal identity (e.g., “being a voter”) versus simply a behavior (e.g., “voting”).
How we label ourselves matters.
In Atomic Habits, James Clear explains how to leverage this connection between identity and behavior. Every action we take can serve as a “vote” for the kind of person we want to become. Moving money to savings, even if it’s a small amount, is a vote for being someone who prioritizes saving. Checking your spending data is a vote for being someone who’s on top of their money.
Each small action can reinforce your desired identity.
So when you take positive action towards that new 2025 resolution to track your spending, you become someone who is on top of your numbers each time you check in with the data. It’s good and useful effort that builds evidence to believe in yourself in a new way, even if you have to push yourself to do what you’re resistant to.
You’re allowed to struggle, even to fail. It’s normal.
When you do fall off the wagon with a resolution or new habit, that’s okay. It doesn’t mean you’ll never pick it back up. It doesn’t mean you can’t retool it to align better with your lifestyle or goals. It doesn’t mean you won’t keep trying.
It doesn’t mean you’re a quitter.
As long as you control your own narrative and don’t let it.
Fear, the worst of all enemies, can be effectively cured by forced repetition of acts of courage.
Napoleon Hill in Think and Grow Rich
Losing is not always up to us… but being a loser is. Being a quitter is.
Ryan Holiday in Discipline Is Destiny
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Under 2, an email series designed to share quick bites of wisdom to empower your financial journey (while keeping it short). Be sure to sign-up below to get these messages in your inbox.
All for now,
Lindsey