This time around, I will be writing about how behavioral change matters if you want to lead a better life. It takes weeks, months, years to cement your behavior in who you want to become. Thinking that we can change ourselves overnight is why we often fail at becoming better individuals.
This is why we often fail at working out, changing our relationship with money, or with addictive behavior patterns. We are often too hard on ourselves as humans and we don’t allow ourselves a grace period that would give us the benefit of the doubt when we slip up.
This causes a relapse even though deep down, we want to become better versions of ourselves. We leave a lasting imprint of disappointment in ourselves every time we don’t meet our standards. This is why it is important to give yourself grace during your struggles.
This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to change your behavior because it is crucial to accomplishing your life goals and your unbecoming behavior can hinder the process in anything you do.
Changing our behavior is fundamental to our success.
Since I often talk about investing, I will write about how behavior can affect our investment portfolio down the road in the next paragraph without self-awareness.
For example, so many lose money when participating in the stock market.
If you don’t have self-awareness and excellent temperament, then either one of two things will happen.
- You will be quick to send money to investments that won’t work out, and you will lose your money due to trying to get rich quickly.
- You will bail out and lose money when the market has one of its downswings.
Let’s delve deeper.
If you have always been an impatient person, you will find attraction in people and things that promise quick fixes and riches.
- You can witness this with the average day trader in the beginning.
- You can witness this with the neighbor jumping into dogecoin way after the boom has happened.
- You can find this with some people who fall for those financial guru courses promising x amount of dollars in two weeks.
When it comes to the second point.
If you have always been a person that panics at the first sign of trouble…
- There is a good chance you will do long-term damage to your portfolio the first time you see red across the board.
- You’ll see this when people hold certain investments only to sell out a great company due to one earning report that missed the numbers.
- Sometimes after a crash, it can take several years to gain back what you once saw in your portfolio, and if you can’t stomach your balance falling 50% and staying there for a couple of years, you will panic and sell at a loss.
When I first started my journey into investing, I studied for two years and worked on changing my thought process before investing a single dollar.
Too many of us have short term thinking at the forefront when it comes to the bigger things when long term thinking would actually be the appropriate process.
So how can we change our behavior to benefit us in the long term?
So, for example, we should lose sight of making declarations such as having a $10,000 portfolio in x amount of years.
Instead, it is beneficial for us to focus on contributing a reasonable x amount of dollars each month or week, depending on your pay schedule and household expenses.
The reason I said set a reasonable amount is because if we set one that we can’t afford it won’t be sustainable and you will have to sell your investments before you can get the snowball rolling towards wealth.
Don’t pressure yourself with big ideals and timeframes, especially if you struggle with the long-term side of things.
Because if you find yourself frustrated with how things are going in the short term, you won’t make it to that $10,000 portfolio.
Learning to shift your behavior can influence other areas of your life.
One of my main focuses in life has been to become a better individual than I have previously been. Therefore, I believe in behavior modification and how it can push us closer to our better selves.
The point isn’t to be perfect; the point is to stop wasting time complaining about our behavior when we can take small steps to eradicate the problem from within.
I understand that this won’t be as easy for some with vulnerable mental health.
With that said, behavior modification is how we change behaviors that we want to change, such as overspending, overeating, abusing substances, partaking in gossip, and behavior that sets us back from the life we want.
And just like investing and everything else that matters, it is a long-term game.
In Conclusion
If you know that you don’t have the patience to handle something like a stock portfolio and aren’t willing to work at becoming patient enough, then you are better off with a financial advisor or reading a book like Common Sense Investing,
Self-awareness goes far when it comes to modifying behavior.
Another example is if you know you can’t contain yourself around sugar but can’t stop cold turkey, buying a single slice of cake from a bakery each day for dessert will work better than just stopping cold turkey for the 10th time.
Because once that slice of cake is gone, there is none left over for you to eat, and by doing that each day you are modifying your behavior through eating less sugar and maintaining a form of self-control.
You can use that cake slice metaphor in other areas of life.
The Broke College Student 
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