Raise your hand if you know you could be doing something to save a nice bit of cash each week but for some reason or another, you just don’t. Maybe you have a hard time getting your act together to pack a lunch each week or somehow you never find the time to look for a cheaper auto insurance plan. Don’t be embarrassed if this is true for you, as almost everyone I know has these little, seemingly easy things that somehow just don’t wind up happening. If you’d like to conquer one of these items on your list, try my three step method for making a change in your habits.

Step #1: Figure out what is holding you back.

Pure laziness is not a detailed enough answer, as you can almost always find a good solution to a problem if you have enough information to work with. Take some time and give yourself a thorough question and answer session to identify what’s really holding you back. Note: Be friendly and kind to yourself when asking questions. Don’t go bad cop on yourself, because it’s not really productive.

For example, if you somehow never make the time to pack a lunch, think about all the reasons for not packing a lunch over the past week:

• Ran out of bread.
• Ran out of time.
• Nothing seemed appealing.
• Just plain forgot.

Or if you continually put off phone calls (my personal Achilles heel), your reasons might look like this:

• Wanted to make sure I had everything at hand before I called.
• Forgot until it was too late to make the call.
• Wanted to wait until a time when I was…

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