When Life Gives You The Opportunity to Start Over, Take It!

I’ll spare you the gory details, but last night was a draining experience. From 4-o’clock on, I was prepping for my first colonoscopy. Today, they’ll be going in and taking a look around the place and making sure everything is where it’s supposed to be and nothing where it’s not. Because of my direct family history of Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, this procedure is something I actually should have done years ago, but my fear prevented me from taking action.

But cleaning out my system made me think about everything that I’ve put in it in my lifetime. All of the abuse I’ve put it through, all the overeating, all the unhealthy food choices – everything came to mind as I was trapped in the bathroom. And then the realization came to me: Now is the perfect opportunity to start over and begin treating my body better.

Opportunities to start over come in many forms. It could be New Year’s Day, a medical procedure, the birth of a new child, losing a job or starting a new one, or just about any other major life change. Whether you need to change your finances, your diet, or some other important aspect of your life; the key is to take advantage of the opportunity.

Choose Your Changes

I decided in March that I wanted get my weight back down to what it was in high school (around 160lbs). To achieve this, I needed to change my diet and my exercise habits. If you want to get your finances in order, you may need to create a budget, start spending less, and begin paying off debt.

Find Your Opportunity

My catalyzing moment was my 28th birthday. I realized I had wasted a decade of my life by making poor diet and exercise choices. Since heart and diabetes problems run in my family, weight and cholesterol are issues that I need to keep in mind. If you’re changing your financial health, your driving moment could be a pocketbook-busting credit card statement, an unexpected overdraft statement, or something as simple as your next paycheck.

Take the Leap

Deciding on changes and having an opportunity come up means nothing if you don’t actually implement those changes. When I chose to start losing weight, I made changes right away to add exercise and start eating better. In the last few months, my progress stalled out, so I’m taking the leap all over again now that I’ve cleaned out my system. To help your financial situation, you can start by making a budget right away and then tracking your spending against it.

Good Luck!

Starting over can be a painful experience, but it’s important to recognize the need for change when things are headed in the wrong direction. Begin today by deciding what changes you need to make and then figure out how and when you want to start working toward them. Good luck on the changes you want to make and keep me in mind today while I’m undergoing my procedure.

---

This article is featured in The Struwwelpeter Edition of the Carnival of Personal Finance.