Diligence vs. Laziness

The word of God says, “He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand; but the hand of the diligent maketh rich” (Proverbs 10:4 KJV).  The way to be successful in our wealth journey (as any other journey), is to be diligent. We don’t have to stay broke.

Diligence:

  1. constant in effort to accomplish something; attentive and persistent in doing anything:
  2. Done or pursued with persevering attention; painstaking:

(Dictionary.com)

That means we show up to engage the areas we say we want to improve; and consistently do so. If our finances are less than what we can be proud of and we have vowed time and again to do better, but nothing has changed; that’s a problem.

The pattern of engaging and then stopping out of nowhere, has to stop. It’s not because we are sick or have a legitimate task requiring our attention; we just stop. That’s laziness. Let’s treat showing up to attend to our finances as any other important business activity. Let’s be willing to show up to do the work; to learn what we don’t know; to learn from others who know more than us and potentially help us; and to invest time and money into improving our situations. Times when we are discouraged or less than motivated, let’s encourage ourselves and partner up. Yes, that takes work too. As a diligent woman (and especially, woman of God), let’s apply what we learn; not just show up to sessions 

to say we showed up. Let’s takes notes, highlight important ideas, prayerfully apply what we learn to our own situations; and regularly engage. Because nothing gets done sitting on our hands, watching tv, scrolling through social media, or sleeping.

This means showing up to do our budget before the new month comes in; and tracking our spending and logging our transactions throughout the month. It means figuring out what our long-term goals are and setting mini goals along the way. For example, if the goal is to become debt-free by 2023 (excluding the mortgage), then we need a plan to pay off each creditor. We need to show up to the table and decide the areas where we can cut back to free up more money. It means stopping subscriptions for a time; reducing a cell phone or internet plan, possibly; getting our hair done every 6 weeks instead of every 2 weeks; and reducing our allowance/pocket money. It may mean figuring out ways to bring in extra money to create a greater surplus.

It takes time, effort, consistency, and persistency. Sometimes it is painstaking to keep reworking the numbers to figure out what to let go of, what to change around, or where that missing money went. But it does not come without its rewards.

It’s empowering to have a plan for our money (to know where our money is going ahead of time) and then watch our hard come together; to see our small wins and then larger wins; to see ourselves pay off that small credit card bill, and then another, and another, then the car, and the student loan. It’s a proud moment to be able to increase our savings and emergency fund and have the cash to handle small or mid-size emergencies; to not have to rely on a credit card or ask somebody if we can borrow the money. Committing to the journey is great and we should be proud. Diligently following through on our commitments, however, is the game changer. That diligence will pay off.