Using Positive Reinforcement to Change Bad Financial Habits
The other day, I blogged about the Strengths-Based Approach to Personal Finance. Today, I would like to discuss a similar but equally useful way to change bad financial habits: positive reinforcement.
Everyone, whether you know it or not, has a basic idea of how this works. In life, we are rewarded when we do something good and punished when we do something bad. This approach focuses on the rewards side of the spectrum and puts the power in your own hands.
Basically, you start by setting a goal for yourself. Small goals work best. If you would like to set a large goal, though, you can still use this method by dividing the goal into several smaller steps. When you have reached your goal, or when you have finished a step of your large goal, you reward yourself.
Now, the key to this method is to make your that you do NOT cheat. If you really like shopping and you decide your reward will be a trip to the mall to buy a new outfit, then you cannot go to the mall a week before you reach your goal. You have to wait until the goal is accomplished.
Another important thing to remember for this approach is that your rewards need to be things you will actually enjoy–things you wouldn’t have gotten for yourself otherwise. Also, don’t feel guilty about your rewards! You earned them, after all. Of course, you should make sure your rewards are reasonable for the type of goal you accomplished.
Finally, remember that the purpose of this approach is to reward yourself–not punish yourself. You want to focus on the positive things you have done, not on the negative. So, if you do not accomplish your goal by the time you designated, you simply do not give yourself the reward and you set a new goal for when you will accomplish it. You will get your reward the second time around if you accomplish the goal that time. You would not, in this instance, give up anything as a punishment when you failed to achieve your goal the first time around.
If you can really master this technique, you can have a lot of fun while changing some negative aspects of your personal finance life. Let me know how it works for you!
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