Make Change Happen and Stay Between the Ditches
May 13, 2021
By Matt Miner, MBA, CFP®
2021.05.12 WPF 023 Make Change Happen and Don’t Wipe Out
Today’s show builds directly on its two predecessor episodes, so if you missed “Learn From Failure and How and When to Trust your Gut” and “The Hope Imperative”, go back and check them out first.
Here’s your Money Guide Quick Tip:
If you wonder how to tell whether you’re overthinking a needed change, read Jon Acuff’s new book, Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking, or listen to Acuff’s interview with Paula Pant on the Afford Anything podcast.
Making Change
Leaders take positive action to make change – in their lives, their families, and their organizations. In my famous failures episode, I reckoned I failed to take positive action to make change, thereby persisting in a failed decision for a long time after I knew change was needed. I called this a failure of will.
still, want-to, desire, and get-up-and-go can be in short supply when you’re in a tough spot. Things I’ve seen help in this area are:
• Good diet, rest, and exercise
• Skipping alcohol and television
• Reading stories – biographies and cases – of people who’ve done something similar to what you want to want to do, or have been the kind of person you want to become
• Telling a trusted friend, mentor, or mastermind group about your commitment to do X by Y and asking them to hold you to it.
• Breaking tasks down into increments and celebrating small wins
• Deciding that, at the level of your personal identity, you are the kind of person who does something; then, surround yourself with other people doing that thing. For example, I’ve decided I’m a podcaster. What do podcasters do? They podcast! And I have a small group of fellow podcasters with whom I connect and we talk about this work.
• Creating habits that support positive change and take willpower out of the equation.
Doing it Right
The flipside of the axiom to create positive change is that if you do this the wrong way you can create upset, chaos, and even risk blowing up your business, career, or an important relationship.
Zuckerburg’s exhortation to “move fast and break things” is at best incomplete and at worst destructive. While taking positive action to make change is necessary, injecting a dose of care is important too. The leader’s maxim must be the same as the physician’s: first do no harm.
In the “Count the Cost and Make the Leap” episode I explored a hypothetical financial plan for someone looking to quit their day job and go full-time on their side-gig. I’ll summarize and say, “make sure you get the boat close to the dock before you jump.”
If you wonder whether your pursuit of positive change is creating chaos or destruction, ask the people closest to you. If people like your spouse, colleagues, or team feel caught off guard or startled by your actions, that’s a clue. Remember, once you’re over the age of ten, there are no good surprises.
TRANSCRIPT
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[00:00:01] Matt Miner: Today's show builds directly on its two predecessor episodes. If you missed Learn From Failure and How and When to Trust Your Gut, and The Hope Imperative, go back and check them out first.
Hey, and welcome to the Work Pants Finance podcast. I'm Matt Miner, your money guide, and Work Pants Finance is the show for MBAs, entrepreneurs, and other professionals who want their financial plan to work as hard as they do.
Here's your money guide quick tip. If you wonder how to tell whether you're overthinking and needed change, read Jon Acuff's new book, Soundtracks: The Surprising Solution to Overthinking, or listen to his terrific interview with Paula Pant on the Afford Anything podcast. You can read more at workpantsfinance.com/23.
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Leaders take positive action to make change in their lives, their families, and their organizations. In my Famous Failures episode, I reckon I failed to take positive action to make change, thereby persisting in a failed decision for a long time after I knew that change was needed. I called this a failure of will.
Now, want to, desire, and get up and go can be in short supply when you're in a tough spot. There are some things that I've seen help in this area, and they're pretty basic. You might even think they're beyond the scope of stuff that a financial advisor might talk about on a podcast. But they definitely include good diet, rest and exercise, skipping alcohol and probably television, reading stories like biographies and cases of people who've done something similar to what you want to do or who've been the person that you want to become, telling a trusted friend or mentor of your commitment to do X by Y and asking them to hold you to it, breaking down tasks into increments, and celebrating small wins.
Deciding that at the level of your personal identity, you are the person who does a certain thing, then surround yourself with other people who do that thing. For example, I've decided I'm a podcaster. What do podcasters do? They ship podcasts, and I have a small group of fellow podcasters with whom I can connect, and we can talk about this work. As an aside, this is why the FI community online blew up so much because there were all these frugal people doing interesting stuff with their money all around the United States, and to some extent, the world, and they found each other on the internet. All of a sudden, they were no longer alone.
Finally, creating habits that support positive change and take willpower out of the equation, and I've talked about that a good bit in my Habit Curation episode. Now, the flip side of the axiom to create positive change is that if you do this the wrong way, you can create chaos, upset, and even risk blowing up your business, career, or an important relationship.
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Make Change Happen and Don't Wipe Out is brought to you by House of Hops on Glenwood Avenue in Raleigh. Thank you, guys, for your delicious beer and excellent service. Keith, Ronna, Justin, and Jeff, I look forward to seeing you soon, and if you're a Work Pants Finance listener out there in podcast land here in the triangle, let me know if you're interested to schedule a meetup at House of Hops. They have lots of outdoor seating. If at least two people express interest, we'll make it happen in June 2021. Go to workpantsfinance.com/contact and shoot me a message.
Mark Zuckerberg's famous exhortation to move fast and break things is at best incomplete and at worst destructive. While taking positive action to make change is necessary, injecting a dose of carefulness is important too. In the Count the Cost and Make the Leap episode, I explored a hypothetical financial plan for someone looking to quit their day job and go full-time on their side gig. I'll summarize and say, make sure you get the boat close to the dock before you jump.
If you wonder whether your pursuit of positive change is creating chaos or destruction, ask the people closest to you. If folks like your spouse, colleagues, or team feel caught off-guard or startled by your actions, that's a clue. Remember, once you're over the age of 10, there are no good surprises.
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[00:04:19] Announcer: Matt Miner is a fee-only fiduciary financial advisor and founder and CEO of Miner Wealth Management, a North Carolina registered investment advisor, where Matt provides personalized unconflicted advice to clients for a fee. He's also my dad, so please be nice when you talk to him.
Matt is a certified financial planner professional and holds a Series 65 securities license. He earned his bachelor's degree in finance from Arizona State University, his MBA from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. Work Pants Finance is Matt's financial media business, where he talks about work, entrepreneurship, kids, and money, taxes, investing in other personal finance topics.
Workpantsfinance.com exists to share wisdom and provide general financial information. It does not financial tax or legal advice. If you are an individual and probably need personal advice for your specific situation, you should consider building relationships with helpful, caring, and competent professionals who understand your unique contacts and can provide advice that is tailored to your needs.
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