Are you struggling to see the wood or the trees? It’s really hard to set goals and feel proactive when we feel cluttered or overwhelmed. We often use the expression that we’re stuck – stuck in place and can’t move forward.
The challenge with being stuck is that not only are our proverbial feet not going anywhere, our ability to see things from different perspectives is also severely diminished. We cannot shift our position, and we’re unable to change our perspective. Acknowledging this is a first and valuable step in introducing fluidity to our goals.
So often in life, when faced with a roadblock or difficult decision, we believe we only have two choices. Stay or go? Win or lose? Right or wrong?
This binary approach to solving our problems is typical of having a fixed or rigid perspective. Sometimes the best and quickest way to start lifting our feet and moving in a positive direction is to allow ourselves some fluidity.
“It’s no surprise that most people report a strong preference for flexibility when it comes to choosing their goals. This is understandable when considering that most of us aren’t very good at predicting our actions and behaviours. Adopting a somewhat elastic approach to setting goals allows us some future wiggle room.” Harvard Business Review
Tricky situations are thrown at us all the time, and we need to learn the exceptional power in reframing these challenges. Changing our perspective can reveal more possibilities and solutions than ever before and even help us better understand others. Sometimes, we need to find ways to deal with the common habits of self-criticism and comparison.
So – when should we be rigid, and when should we be more fluid? That’s a great question, and the answer is rather murky.
According to the same HBR article quoted above, we make as many as 35,000 decisions a day. So in the context of an already information-overloaded, decision-fatigued environment, one thing we will likely appreciate is the need to make fewer, not more, decisions. Fluidity, that wiggle room, allows us to change our minds according to the context and our personal situation, and that is where the answer becomes murky.
At SFP, we know that no one makes the same decision as to the next person, so financial planning is less about a structured plan that everyone needs to follow and more about structured saving and risk and wealth management principles. This means that we can come with a predetermined set of goals and make them flexible to work within our personal context.
This brings us back to the earlier thought of self-criticism and comparison. It’s really easy to go home, after our meeting, and see the cars your friends are driving, the schools their kids are going to, the holidays they’re going on… and compare your life with theirs. We need to break these habits and develop healthier habits that reinforce a fluid, flexible and fortuitous future.
Goal fluidity is contextual, there are times when we need to sit tight and stick to our guns, and then there will be times when we need to be kind to ourselves and cut some slack for wiggle room. At SFP, we’re here to help you understand which time is best for you inside of your bigger plan.