My experience with the 21 days rule
My paycheck decreased! How is that possible?
Turns out sometime last year, I had checked an option to automatically increase by 401K contribution by 2% every year. So as “next year” became this month’s paycheck, I was now making $100 less than my previous paycheck.
I immediately felt restless esp. because I wasn’t ready for this change even though I had set it up. Funnily, I felt like I was being “robbed” of my hard-earned money. I nearly cancelled the 401K increase but decided to wait till the next day before I pulled the trigger.
By the next day, I felt less angry, and decided to wait till the next paycheck.
As you guessed it, I didn’t pull the trigger after two weeks.
So now I was making $200 less every month but my expenses were still the same!
Again, the thought of cancelling the 401K increase started gathering storm.
I convinced myself to wait for my next credit card bill, and if I was short by $200, I would cancel the increase.
It’s been 3 months now since I first noticed the reduced paycheck. My life has not changed in any way and I am investing $200 more every month than earlier. By the end of 12 months, I would have gained nearly $2500, just by resisting the initial temptation for a few days.
Looks at that reward ratio!
Depending on your financial situation you could choose to increase your monthly contribution by $10 or $1000, but any change, even the smallest change will always be beneficial if we can hold our nerve for the first few days/weeks that it feels uncomfortable.
If we can get manage to get past the anger/pain/irritation of the first 21 days of any new change, we can achieve most of our goals.
I am trying to implement the lessons from my 401K increase as I try to write consistently, every day.
Without thinking about whether my output is Good/Bad/Ugly, my 21-day Goals are as follows:
· Write a 2-page morning journal everyday (before checking email ) for 21 days
· Publish a Medium post every day for 21 days
Wish you Good Luck for your next 21 day goals
