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It’s health insurance open season. And that means some of you, like me, may be perusing the myriad options of health plans to get the best value for your money and health circumstances in the upcoming year.
Health insurance is a great example of one of those adulting essentials that is important to understand and get right, because it can have a big financial impact, but choosing plans is so full of tedium and frustration that most of us would rather scrape gum off furniture.
And like any financial planning conundrum, shopping for health insurance can bring a lot of anxiety over the many unknowns.
But here’s the thing: we can’t spend our precious focus and energy going in circles over fears, what-ifs, and unknowns.
We must direct it towards solving problems to the best of our ability, with the information we have, and not letting energy leak in unproductive worry reimagining scenario after scenario.
Like with any financial conundrum, ruminating too much is an indulgence that hurts our ability to see through the fog and make rationale decisions. Not to mention, it’s exhausting and generally adds to our frustration.
It’s far more useful to make small, measured steps in the right direction.
In between small efforts tackling a problem or decision, your subconscious will continue to work on it and you’ll come back to your task with fresh eyes and a clear mind ready to make headway. Consciously worrying and beating against challenges without taking breaks becomes a huge waste of energy and focus.
This approach works on any problem you’re tackling because it relies on the law of compounding returns. Many small efforts will build upon each other, yielding high-impact results over time.
That might mean several separate sessions at your laptop poring over insurance benefit documents – with a day or two break in between each one – before you start to settle on a good decision.
But it can be true of any large challenge or task. I came across the same idea earlier this week from a writing coach for book authors who, instead of giving the same advice I usually hear that you must “write every day,” she advised that you must simply have some “book time” each day, whether that means researching comparable titles, revisiting some old paragraphs from a previous session, or freewriting down some fresh ideas. The idea was to grapple with some bit of the project each day, yes, but not to expect or force solid creative output each day.
In short, you can’t pound the solution to a tricky financial decision out of yourself any better than an author could pound a new 80,000 word manuscript out (at least not one worth reading). You simply interface with it regularly and allow time to work its compounding magic.
Give yourself some space to find answers bit by bit and whatever financial conundrum or decision you’re working on will become more clear to you.
Because persistence is particularly powerful when combined with the compounding effects of time and the gentle flow of patience.
Perseverance is failing 19 times and succeeding the 20th.
Julie Andrews
Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.
Arthur Ashe
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