Welcome to the Weekly Quick Hits Roundup!
If you’re new here, every week I write a weekly wrap-up of things that were going on here at Young Adult Money, a few personal updates/thoughts, and finally a few posts I read this week that I thought were worth sharing.
If you don’t already, please considering Following us on Twitter, Liking us on Facebook, and Following us on Pinterest.
We also have our giveaway roundup every Friday. This Friday there are 227 giveaways listed this week that end today (1/31) through next Thursday (2/6).
_____________________________________________________________________
The last week of January is always a bit sobering. If you’re like me, you listed all your goals in December for the New Year and were pumped and ready to go when January 1st came around. (Also) if you’re like me, you basically set yourself up for failure because you set unrealistic expectations for yourself.
I’m not saying I didn’t have a great January, but no matter what I end up feeling like I ‘came up short.’ A similar thing happens each day/night when I make my ‘to do’ list. I like to dump all the thoughts I’m having on a piece of paper so I don’t have to store them in my brain. Unfortunately I then try to get them all done, which never seems to happen.
It’s interesting how many of us can be our own worst critics. Most people are either apathetic or too consumed in their own lives to care a whole lot about whether you checked everything off your to-do list or whether you made that extra $500 on your side hustle.
Plus, in all honesty, failing at things is nothing to be ashamed of. I’m a huge Dilbert nerd since taking up residency in a cubicle in a huge office building at a huge corporation, so I always try to read Scott Adam’s (creator of Dilbert) articles when he writes for the WSJ. He wrote about failing your way to success recently and I think it’s well worth your time.
In this article he talks about how passion actually is fueled by success. His passion for cartooning grew as the success of Dilbert increased. I agree wholeheartedly with his analysis. Someone asked me what sort of business I would ideally start. I said honestly I just want to own a business because of the upside potential.
I’ve failed many times at the whole small business thing, as I described in 5 of My Small Business and Website Failures. The fact that Young Adult Money is “successful” is both surprising but not. I know there will be many business failures or things that just plain fizzle out in the future, and that’s okay as long as I’m willing to move on to the next thing.
What about you? Are you beating yourself up over every tiny failure or every goal you weren’t able to accomplish? Or are you learning from your failures and moving on to the next thing?
So this was a little different than my regular weekly updates, but it happens ;)
Below are the posts we published this week:
- Monday I shared How Much Money Would you Need to Live off Dividend Income? [Free Download]. This includes a Dividend Analysis Tool in Google Spreadsheets.
- On Tuesday Sally shared My Monthly Budget Breakdown.
- On Wednesday Cat shared Start Up Costs for Owning a Dog.
- On Thursday I asked Focus on a Side Hustle or Go to Grad School?.
- Today (Friday) we announced our first giveaway of 2014, a $1,200 Cash Giveaway.
Posts of the Week:
As usual, here are five posts from this week that I enjoyed:
- Jefferson from See Debt Run gives some career (and life) advice in Why You Should Stop Complaining at Work
- Anne from Unique Gifter helps all the clueless guys out there (myself included) in For Men Only: What She Really Wants for Valentine’s Day
- Brian from Luke 1428 lives in Atlanta and talks about the disaster that snow caused this week in When a Snowfall Brings Panic, Excitement and Pressure
- Michelle from Diversified Finances gives us some productivity tips in Tips To Manage Your E-mail Better
- Grayson from Debt Roundup reflects on things in A Sobering Moment Of Reflection
____________
How was your week? Doing anything exciting this weekend? What have you failed at recently? Even better, what have you learned from your failures recently?
____________
Photo by Nicolas de Camaret
Check out some of our favorite personal finance resources:
Are you getting the best credit card rewards? Check out the top cash back credit card offers (updated daily)
Make extra money: 15 ways to make money from your computer
Get the First Chapter Free!
Join our online community and get the first chapter of the book Student Loan Solution absolutely FREE!
I know what you mean about being disappointed and frustrated when you aren’t able to get everything done on your list. The one thing I’ve noticed is that I tend to be extra critical/frustrated when I am tired. That’s normally a sign for myself to just put it down and relax and go take a nap or something. Normally my best work doesn’t come about when I’m exhausted anyways.
BudgetforMore I hear you on that! Unfortunately for me, I usually only get about six hours of sleep on weeknights. By Friday night I’m completely exhausted. It’s hard to balance a good sleep schedule with all the things on my “to do” lists, but you are probably right that you can’t expect your best work on limited sleep.
January is just exhausting. And I’m not sure about the weather where you are, but it’s enough to be a seasonal depression sufferer’s worst nightmare. I’m maybe getting about an hour of sun a day. But at least I know that it gets better from here.
fitisthenewpoor I live in Minnesota so trust me, I know about bad weather! My wife mentioned that recently as well that the weather is likely affecting people’s moods.
I always find that when I make a to do list for the day, it takes me about a week to complete. I’ve learned that I need to celebrate everything I DO get done.
brokeandbeau I also need to work on celebrating the things I do get done. I don’t do that nearly enough.
I failed at running my half marathon this weekend. The timing, weather, and the flu just wrecked my plans. Here’s hoping for May. I also had a perfect opportunity to pitch myself to a retinal doctor who is leaving a group practice to go out on his own. I know he will need help and I have lots of experience in running a practice and with seeing surgical follow up patients, but I am already sometimes feeling a bit over worked in this new phase of my career, so I had to remind myself that I have enough on my plate right now. I’m not sure if that counts as a success or a failure. It’s hard for me to walk away from work.
Eyesonthedollar I’m the same way. I don’t like to say “no” to opportunities and have at times taken on too much (some would argue right now I am taking on too much!). Sorry to hear about your half marathon. When I trained for one it was reduced to 5 miles because of extreme heat and humidity. I’m thankful that it was, though, because I ran the 5-miler injured and probably would have seriously hurt myself if I ran the half-marathon.
January has flown by and I didn’t get many things done compared to what I wanted to. My goals this year were a little more long term, so I am OK with that. Thanks for the mention DC! The only thing I have on the agenda this weekend is Super Bowl!
DebtRoundUp That’s great that you are content with what you accomplished in January. I also have longer-term goals and that’s something I need to keep in perspective when I beat myself up for not having something finished.
Thanks for the shout out!
Sometimes I beat myself up and sometimes I don’t… I have a knack for getting things 90% done and then they fizzle :-S
Ugifter No problem! What, 90%??? You need to finish those things!
I haven’t really learned how to properly view failure yet, and that’s a double edged sword. I’ll work hard to avoid it when I can, but that also means I will procrastinate and avoid things that have a decent risk/reward profile.
I’m with you on the January goals. Mine are a mixed bag so far, but hope springs eternal and here come February: new month, new start.
DonebyForty That’s the nice thing about the month ending. Regardless of how it went, there’s always another one.
I’m more of the learning type and moving on. Beating yourself up over past failures is going to create a lot of negativity in your mind/life, which will in turn, impact you in the present…causing bad decisions. Thanks for thinking about us down here in the south and sharing my post. No school again today…still a bit too much ice. :) Should be fine by Sunday though…supposed to be 60 by then.
As much as I tell people not to beat themselves up for their mistakes, I am not always the best at following my own advice. :) I can be my own worst critic too and sometimes that inner critic is shouting, rather than whispering. The one thing that has helped me turn it off is seeing how stuck clients can be when they refuse to let go of their mistakes. They don’t see the opportunities standing in front of them because they are too afraid or too busy berating themselves. I remind myself when I get in that mindset that every failure taught me something and brings/brought me closer to success. Have a great weekend, DC!
Thank you for mentioning my article on Diversified Finances :)
I used to beat myself over my goals, but not so much anywhere. Instead, I just focus on doing better and try not to live with regret. Wasting time thinking about how much I sucked in the previous month does not help me.
I’m just glad January is
outta here. It was brutal and it won’t be missed! Well, there is
always something to learn when it comes to failures. The key is
learning the lesson, then making adjustments so that you can do better next time.
I’m not a big Super Bowl fan but I’ll be watching since it’s practically
in my backyard (about 8 miles from my house). The weather has turned for
the better here in Jersey, thankgoodness. It’s suppose to be 50 degrees
on Sunday! Enjoy your weekend!
I always fall short on my to do list too and it’s really hard not to beat myself up. Have you ever taken a Myers Briggs test? I was just curious what your personality type was. Sometimes you sound a lot like me haha.
I totally beat myself up when I don’t feel like I’m making as much success as I’d like. It’s not really healthy and it’s something that I’m actively working on.
I like setting crazy high goals. Even if I fail, I still made some good progress. As long as I keep on truckin, I know I’ll get there eventually.
And Scott Adams is seriously a genius. He is hilarious, and working for a big company, pretty spot on with Dilbert 99% of the time.
I tend to beat myself up over not achieving huge goals, too. I am definitely my worst critic. All you can do is take it day by day and make sure each action you are doing is somehow, someway getting you closer to the bigger goals.