Be Willing to Be a Beginner at This

My daughter just learned how to ride a bike. She's a little bit on the cautious side, so she practiced with a balance bike for quite some time. She was very wobbly on the balance bike for a while because she would go very slowly. Eventually with practice, she became more and more confident and made the plunge for the next step: pedals. One of my greatest joys of parenting is watching my kids learn things. They are so tenacious. They keep at it until they get it right. We can learn so much from that spirit of "try it out."

The thing is, as adults we don't really practice much of anything. We know how to wash the dishes. We can cook dinner. We are proficient at making our beds (although maybe not currently practicing the habit...). We don't often have an opportunity to practice being a beginner unless we choose to do so - pick up the guitar and learn some chords or challenge ourselves to make different cuisine for dinner once a week.

When you start budgeting, you'll probably find yourself judging yourself. That's okay. But stop. Don't worry about if you're doing it correctly or perfectly or "the right way". It's your money. The only "bad" way to budget is to stop budgeting entirely.

Your budget won't be perfect. Do it imperfectly.

If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing badly.

G. K. Chesterton was a genius. He knew we tend to get caught up in doing things efficiently and perfectly, and that can cause us from even doing the good thing in the first place. It reminds me of "perfect is the enemy of good" by Voltaire.

Be willing to be a beginner.

Be willing to make mistakes.

Be willing to fail.

The only thing I can pretty much guarantee about budgeting is that you're going to change your mind about exactly where you want your money to go.

Guess what. That's a good thing.

Since you're human, you are growing, adapting, changing. Your spending plan should change with you.

"I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." — Thomas Edison

So do it, and do it badly. You might wobble at first, but I promise you that the more you practice, the more confident you will feel.