Staying Motivated on Your Financial Journey

Dear Amor,

This past week a former co-worker turned friend and huge supporter of Wealth Para Todos LLC sent me the following question:

How do I keep motivating myself to make progress? The only debts I have left are BIG and the savings goals I have are BIG and so even though I'm making steps towards them each month, it will take YEARS for me to realize any real progress.

And I've been thinking about it all week. Instead of sharing tips here, I want to discuss the social construct of time.

Ever since my 2 year old wanted to start wearing dresses and some of my loved ones told me "You have to teach him how to be a boy," I've been very critical of social constructs and which ones I decide to perpetuate.

Time is a social construct too. And like many of our social constructs, it serves a select few.

I think about when I was in the classroom and would give my students five minutes to complete their math "do now/ warm-up." Who did that serve? My lesson plan, my pacing calendar, my performance review, etc.

Many of my students felt rushed and even anxious. I would hold space for their concerns but eventually always encouraged them to adapt. As kindly as I could, I would say "It's hard now but you will get used to it. You will become faster. This will become easier and you will be better prepared for the state exam."

Ugh, it breaks my heart to think about all the timelines, the measures of "success," the stress of deadlines, etc. that we train our children to adapt to in the name of "achievement."

And it breaks my heart even more as I think about how often I've suffered because of my inability to notice my agency within a society obsessed with time. (I mean I'm typing this with sore hands after spending 15 hours yesterday cleaning and building furniture as I rush to move into a new apartment. 🤦🏽)

Amor, can you imagine a world where we didn't keep track of days, years, hours, and minutes?

Can you imagine not knowing your age or how long you've been working on something?

Can you identify how the social construct of time has served you and when it hasn't?

What feelings come up? What thoughts come up?

Amor, I could have gone straight into sharing how to stay motivated on your financial journey but I want you to think about what DIVINE TIME looks like for you.

I define DIVINE TIME as honoring my wellness and wholeness despite learned expectations from a society obsessed with speed.

Since I started my move, I haven't been living within divine time. All the furniture delivery alerts, deadlines from the property management, coordinating with movers, and trying to get help from my village, has kept me living on what I call "Capitalist time," "Colonial Time," "Patriarchal time," "Unjust Time," "Foochila Time" ... you get the idea.

And whenever I live in those constructs of time, my brain is filled with thoughts of "Soledad, you are too slow. Everyone else would be done by now. [Insert name of someone I know] was able to [insert some task] a lot faster than you." And the reality is that shameful voice usually forces me to push through but never in a way that honors my wellness.

Divine time sounds like "Poco a poco, todo con tiempo." "Wow, look at how far you've come." "My body wants me to rest now and I'm going to listen."

Amor, when you reflect on your financial journey what type of time are you running on?

May you call yourself back from all times repeatedly because you deserve to run on divine time as much as possible!

And if you are in need of some more more tangible tips, this month's free workshop will be about "Staying Motivated on Your Financial Journey" on Sunday, July 17th at 8am PST/ 11am EST. You can register here!

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Todo con tiempo,

ANNOUNCEMENTS + REMINDERS

• On Tuesday, July 5th at 12pm PST/3pm EST I will be talking to teachers Israel and Sunem Tovar from @dreamteacherproject about how they are pursuing financial independence while teaching in the classroom on IG Live. I hope you will join us or watch the replay.
• Watch the replay of my IG Live with Sarah from @savvysavingsquad where we discussed how to build with children here. Sarah shared how she is investing in a 529 account and a taxable brokerage account for her child and so much more!
• I am currently booked till August 2022 for 1:1 clients. If you or someone you know wants to work with a financial coach to transform your financial trajectory poco a poco use this link to apply to work conmigo.​

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