Fat Funny Girl

A weird way to describe yourself I hear you say. No, this isn’t a – woe is me, please feel sorry for me and give me all the love and attention you have spare – type of post. In fact this is a self loving notion that has taken root in my mind and I want to share it with you. I’m a fat funny girl.

Why would I describe myself that way?!

The short answer is its a mindset shift. I could easily have said I’m a funny fat girl and that would be completely wrong. The emphasis here is on my sense of humor. I just happen to be fat. I’m not funny because I’m fat. See what I mean?

How does this mindset shift help?

Well instead of focusing on a negative attribute of mine I’m choosing to focus on a part of myself that I actually like. There is nothing at all wrong with knowing the things you’d like to change about yourself. I believe we need to know the good and bad about ourselves and not hide from it. The key thing is not to focus completely on the negative. Be aware of it but don’t let it consume you.

What’s this got to do with money?

Not everything we do in life has a link to money but a positive mindset is surely an asset when dealing with money issues. Fat funny girl might just as easily be broke and budgeting instead of budgeting and broke. Broke and budgeting implies someone is broke but doing something about it. Budgeting and broke however implies someone is budgeting but the numbers aren’t adding up.

How to use this idea in your own life?

When you implement a budget in your life you need to be conscious of how it’s going. Are you sticking to the budget or is it more of a guideline? Be mindful of how you are using your money. It’s well and good writing a budget every month but if you’re not using it you might as well plant a €50 note and hope a money tree sprouts.

Being truthful with your self really is the most important element. If you’re not consistent with your budget you can’t realistically expect great results from it. If you took up jogging and did it off and on for a year would you really expect the same results as someone who did it every day?

Remember to focus on the positives!

Being truthful is only part of the equation. Focusing on the wins and where things went well makes staying on course easier than getting bogged down in where things went wrong. If you make a mess of the budget it’s not the end of the world. As an alternative to saying “I can’t get this right” consider saying “I made a mistake but I learned this (insert lesson) from the experience”. Be honest with yourself but focus on the positive that came from the lesson.

Further reading

If you are interested in reading some more around positive mindset shift I found a piece written by Larry Alton that I found interesting. Here is the link. Larry also believes in turning mistakes into learning experiences and in turning negative self talk into positive self talk.