“ Becoming financially independent is the greatest path of personal growth, because there’s so much you’re going to have to go through, and so many things about yourself you have to overcome to BREAKTHROUGH those barriers, and achieve that success. It’s a personal path of financial success and a path of personal growth, both of which are very rewarding ” – Todd Tresidder

Learn how the frustration you feel when working on your financial goals is actually feedback that you’re growing

At 10.00am on Monday morning, a WhatsApp notification flashes on Sarah’s phone. It’s a message from her younger brother, Tony, who needs money to take a cloud computing course. Sarah is not pleased.  She has been taking her finances seriously for the past 6 months, doing her best to stick to the 50-30-20 budget rule.  She is clearly frustrated- actually, she has been frustrated a lot lately because she had to dip into her savings on numerous occasions. Over the same 6-month period, she either had to pay for something or give someone money she hadn’t planned for. For Sarah, she finds it really annoying that things cannot just go according to plan.

It’s safe to say you can relate to this story. 

You begin to implement a plan towards goal achievement and various unforeseen circumstances appear from nowhere to disturb your efforts. You begin to consider just throwing the towel in.  However, a simple shift in mindset can make the feedback you require to keep your goal in focus and drive towards achievement. 

Enter, the four stages of competence.

This mental model can be applied to learning or skill development, with the various parts of the model showing HOW the results take shape with time. Let’s examine Sarah’s case as she is developing the skill of managing her money.

The FIRST level of the model is known as Unconscious Incompetence. In this stage, Sarah doesn’t know that she’s not good at what she’s doing. Picture a baby trying to walk for the first time- he or she doesn’t know why she can’t walk but keeps having a go at walking. The results don’t matter to the baby, as the baby is just trying to walk for walking sake.

Source: tsbates.com

Then comes the SECOND stage (Conscious Incompetence)

Here Sarah’s been allocating her finances for some time and it is apparent to her that she isn’t great at it. It’s HERE the frustration sets in, and commonly, you begin to feel a great urge to call it quits. At this stage it is beneficial to remember that any money saved is better than not saving at all. She doesn’t always have to hit 20% every month. good performance at this stage entails knowing where you are and hanging in there ( focus on maintaining the habit).

Here’s why Sarah shouldn’t give up

By keeping with the routine of managing her money, Sarah upgrades to the third stage which is conscious competence. At this level, Sarah would figure out what needs to change to get better at the money game. As her understanding improves, she would find opportunities to master the foundational areas that relate to building her financial wealth i.e. Long term focus vs. Short term focus (retirement planning) , Successful behavior change (sound money habits), Surrounding herself with Financial Masters (fruitful relationships), Financial Literacy (Reading, podcasts, events, etc.), Budgeting (consciously allocating money), Spending (on necessities vs luxuries) and Investing ( acquiring more income producing assets while reducing liabilities). At this stage, she can begin to identify as someone who is good with money. 

Need to know

Frustration	The feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially because of inability to change or achieve something
Stages of competence	According to the model, we move through the following levels as we build competence in a new skill: Unconscious incompetence, Conscious incompetence, Conscious competence and Unconscious competence
Competence	The ability to do something successfully or efficiently
Mental Model	A mental model is an explanation of someone’s thought process about how something works in the real world. It is a representation of the surrounding world, the relationships between its various parts and a person’s intuitive perception about his or her own acts and their consequences

And then comes the FINAL stage. Sarah becomes an expert at personal finance management (Unconscious Competence), after many years putting in practice, experimenting, making mistakes, accessing quality information, and fostering the right relationships. At this level, managing her finances has become Sarah’s second nature (you can say it’s as easy as brushing her teeth). 

So how does this apply to YOU?

“You can’t change your destination overnight but you can always change your direction “

It’s important to remember that when you’re at the second stage (conscious incompetence), you have to be patient with yourself. The feeling of frustration you have is just growing pains. Sure, it’s nice for things to work out exactly as planned, but as with most things in life they don’t work out exactly as planned. Does it mean you should not even bother with a plan? Ofcourse not! A fool with a plan is better than a genius without one. Don’t forget that things take time, and in life, continued investing (in yourself, finances, relationships etc ) will lead to compounding taking care of the rest over time.

Instead of getting frustrated at your efforts to achieve your financial goals (or achieving any goal for that matter), remember to be patient with yourself. As you head into the second half of 2020, be content with your capacity for now. Accept it.  Monitor your growth, maintain momentum, and improvement will surely occur over time-its all part of the same process. Most importantly, do not quit!

WISHING YOU A FRUITFUL H2-2020, FILLED WITH PEACE AND LOVE

Action Step:

Assess how you’re doing when it comes to managing your finances along the four stages of competence model using the table below.

FINANCE AREA	LEVEL OF COMPETENCE
Financial literacy (reading, podcasts, events, etc)
Budgeting (consciously allocating money)
Spending (on necessities vs luxuries)
Investing (acquiring more income producing assets while reducing liabilities)
Surrounding yourself with financial masters (relationships with finance experts)
Long term focus vs. short term focus (retirement planning)
Successful behavior change (sound money habits)