The One Skill Anyone Can Learn to Make (and Save) More Money
What’s the one skill anyone can learn to make (and save) more money?
The art of following through.
There are so many areas of life where following through really pays.
Following through on saving money
Let’s take a small example of saving money first. Suppose you’re out to buy a new cell phone. You’re not really looking for any particular model of phone, so it turns out that finding a phone with a big rebate is the deciding factor. You buy the phone, happy about your good deal.
But you didn’t really get a good deal yet. You have to follow through first.
If you actually go home, fill out the form, include everything required for the rebate, and send it in before the deadline, then you’ll end up getting some money back. But without follow through, you lose out on that money. With it, you spend less than you otherwise might have.
When earning money…
Following through is important on the earning money side of things too. 80-20 your career. Meet and beat deadlines regularly without a bunch of reminders, and your boss will sit up and take notice. Of course, that’s what an employee should be doing anyway, but so few people actually do consistently that you’ll stand out. A lot.
The same kinds of things apply to a variety of other situations too. Life is filled with opportunities to follow through and be better off for it.
The secret to following through
The secret to following through on a consistent basis is simple: make an effort to do so, and then practice.
Sometimes making an effort to follow through is as easy as making notes to yourself when talking to others (by writing down anything you promise to do and by when you’ve promises to do it).
Other times it requires a bit of thought and planning, especially for big projects. You may need to break things down into smaller steps, and then schedule those steps on your calendar.
But the more you follow through, the more you’ll be rewarded.
Follow through is such a huge piece of success that I’m surprised so many people mess this up. It seems everyone is great at starting tasks. Few are great at finishing.
This is so very true. For the past couple of months I’ve stopped doing any new projects and dedicated to just completing all the little things I had started and not finished. Not only does it feel great to finish things and follow through, but I’ve also noticed a difference in my financial situation.
When I was out traveling and doing seminars around the country I was encouraging people to save a portion of their paycheck. The majority of people agreed it was important but followed by with “I don’t make enough money.”
I had one employee who started saving $5 per paycheck. She did so through the credit union and a year later found herself saving $1000. It’s been 3 years and she’s now saving more than $5 but she’s ingrained a habit.
The key to her success? Electronic transfers immediately after her direct deposit.
I totally agree with this post. Without following through, you will be going nowhere and would surely miss a lot of important things as well as waste a lot of money with your expenses.