Today’s Decision Becomes Tomorrow’s Reality

As part of a training plan that I am following for the Monumental Marathon in November, I am doing interval running workouts called “strength workouts.” These workouts involve running mile repeats at a pace that is slightly less than my projected marathon pace. Since I am optimistically projecting a marathon pace of 7:10 per mile, my strength workouts sometimes involve running 6, 1-mile repeats at 7:00 per mile.

On a normal day, this is something that I can do. It’s not an easy workout, but I can usually complete it.

However, yesterday I completed a CrossFit style workout that involved 84 “thrusters.” For those of you that have never done them, thrusters are a pretty gnarly full-body workout that involves pressing a weight overhead coupled with a deep squat. As a runner, squats are one of the most important things to do, but they also make me really sore.

Luckily, after completing the workout on Sunday, I felt pretty good. But when I woke up on Monday, I noticed that my quadriceps were pretty trashed. Unfortunately, it got worse throughout the day. By the time I went outside to run Monday afternoon, I found myself struggling just to get out of the car and walk or jog at a slow pace.

Somehow, I managed to complete the first 3 mile repeats at 7:00 per mile. However, my next 3 repeats were done in 7:26, 8:45, and 8:19. I really felt the impact of the workout on Sunday, which obviously caused me to struggle while running today.

As I was reflecting on this workout, I began to think that I had set myself up for failure. I knew that I wouldn´t be able to run well after doing such a tough workout on Sunday.

In other words, the decision that I made on Sunday caused me to fail on Monday.

I sabotage myself

While I was unsuccessfully trying to finish my workout, I had a lot of time to think. During this time, I began to realize that there are many other areas of my life that I tend to sabotage myself in. I´ll stay up too late trying to finish a movie even though I know that I have to get up early in the morning. Or I will eat too much sugar, fully knowing that it will make me feel bad in an hour or two.

Of course, even when I am in the middle of doing something, I know the effect that it will have on me later. I completely know that today´s decision becomes tomorrow’s reality, but I will still knowingly make the wrong decision.

With money

As you and I both know, it’s extremely easy to make the wrong decision when it comes to money. We may overspend, fail to invest, or go deeply into credit card debt. Even though we may know the effect that poor money decisions will have on us, we still make these decisions.

When making any decision, it often helps to look at it from a much longer term perspective than tomorrow or even a year from now. Even though it seems counterintuitive, looking at things with a lens on the future will not only improve our future life, but our present life as well. Looking towards the future gives us the peace that comes with having a long-term plan and also helps to encourage discipline in our lives.

What can we do?

Today’s decision becomes tomorrow´s reality.

OK, that’s cool, but how can I use this to help me? Do I have to create a pro and con list of everything that I do, making sure I account for future me in 20 years? Although I might be successful by following this method, I would also make my life a lot more difficult and lose a lot of the spontaneity of now.

Aside from listing out every decision that we make, there are a few steps that we can follow with our money to make sure we are making the right decision today.

Step One: Before buying anything, we need to make sure that we have enough money to pay for it.

If we are buying a house, we should always check to see if we can afford the mortgage payments. Not only should we think about the payments today, but we should also make sure that we can afford them in the future even if everything doesn´t go according to plan.

If we are buying a taco with a credit card, we need to check and make sure that we will be able to pay for the taco when the credit card bill is due. There´s nothing worse than paying 19.9% interest on some food that you ate 3 months ago!

Step Two: Anticipate large future expenses and set up a plan to pay for them. 

I know that I´ll want to buy newer cars or furniture in the future. I also know that stuff around my house will eventually break down and I´ll need to repair it. I could pretend that these things won´t happen, but I know that they will.

Since I know that I will have to cover some large future expenses, I can make the decision today to start saving for these expenses. Again, if I make this decision today, then it means that I´ll have the money I need for tomorrow’s expenses.

Step Three: Realize that we won’t work forever. 

You might have a 9-5 job right now that you love. You may even think that you will want to work at this job forever.

However, forever is quite a long time. Your job may go away, your circumstances may change, or you may just realize that the job you used to love no longer does it for you.

Since you and I will not work for the rest of our lives, then we need to invest for when that work ends. Whether we want to retire early or wait until the more traditional age of 65, we need money set aside for when we stop working.

Take action

So what decision can you make today that will make tomorrow better? Can you start eating healthier, go for a walk in the woods, or put some money in a savings account? Not only will negative decisions affect us tomorrow, but making positive decisions will as well.

Let us know in the comments what you will do today to make tomorrow better.

And thanks for reading!

~Nathan

Let’s keep living a great life … with the help of money. So what’s next?

• You can travel for free by using rewards credit cards.
• You can get motivated and get out of debt.
• You can check out the next post or the previous post and continue to learn.

But no matter what you decide to do, let’s leave the ordinary behind and take action today!