Living on a budget isn’t just something you do when you’re getting out of debt or saving for a big purchase. Financially free people budget forever. No-Spend Challenges will help you develop that habit and be successful with money throughout your life.

The most talked-about issue when people are getting their finances together is sticking to a budget. There’s a painful verse in the Bible where Paul writes, “I don’t understand what I do. What I want to do I don’t, but what I hate I do.”

It sounds like Paul hated budgeting too.

Nobody makes a budget just to break it. So why do we have this problem that’s been going on for thousands of years where we can’t keep our commitments to ourselves? And how do we fix it?

Even though a No-Spend Challenge can be a time to think less about budgeting, it’s still necessary to have one. And I may not have found the cure to “doing what I hate,” but science may hold the answer to getting better at it 토토.

Decision Fatigue

A lot of people think their addictive or impulsive personality means they can’t change their overspending habits. While there’s something to be said for how genetics and personality affect the purchases we make, overspending and impulsive spending aren’t personality problems.

Before we dive into practical strategies for controlling your spending, let’s get sciencey.

The prefrontal cortex of your brain is in charge of executive functions like logic, planning, problem-solving, and impulse control. According to a study on the prefrontal cortex and impulsive decision-making by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, there are two types of impulsiveness.

The first is when the brain places too much weight on immediate outcomes without considering the weight of future benefit, like in the famous test where kids have to choose one marshmallow now or two later. (Spoiler, most of them picked the immediate gratification.)

The second is the rapid response of habit without considering what the correct response should be. Like when I see a Starbucks and next thing I know, I’m in the drive-thru line.

The study further showed that people’s willpower to choose the best option decreased when they were faced with stress, distraction, and even loud noises.

Got any of those in your life?

Researchers determined that willpower isn’t a reservoir; it’s a muscle. While you can’t draw from it whenever you like (if that was true, we’d all be skinny) you can stretch it and strengthen it over time to go further and last longer. At the same time, you can turn decisions that take a lot of willpower into habits that become your rapid response.

No-Spend Challenges can be an exercise in strengthening your willpower to build better rapid responses. Saying no to all or most spending reduces the number of decisions you make in a day. That, in turn, gives your brain more space to make better decisions about important things. It also builds healthier spending habits that will hopefully carry over when you’re done with the challenge.

In my life, I’ll use coffee as an example. I used to grab coffee whenever I drove past a coffee shop. After a few No-Spend Challenges, I now limit myself to one cup a day that I drink out of my favorite mug at home. I still go out for a latte, but it’s not spontaneous; instead, I make sure it’s something I’m looking forward to. I’ve figured out what works for me to make fewer decisions and develop a healthier habit.

The Myth of Moderation

Most people try to jump straight from mindless spending into calculated moderation. We make the perfect budget then wonder why we can never stick to it for more than nine days.

Moderation is a deceptive concept, it takes perfect willpower to achieve moderation.

We set these big goals for ourselves: to get out of debt, lose weight, read everyday, stay off social media, and get down on ourselves when we’re buying cookies at 10 p.m. because we saw someone’s vacation pics on Facebook.

You’re not hopeless. You’re a normal human being.

When you’re starting out, it’s a lot easier to stick to a budget if you forget moderation and go with extremism. Hence, instead of giving myself a coffee budget, I cut it out completely.

Shift your thinking to work on building better habits. When you’ve built healthy habits, moderation will be a byproduct and you won’t have to think about it as much.

If you want to read more about habit formation, I recommend Mini Habits by Stephen Guise and Habit Stacking by S.J. Scott. Most people vastly overestimate what they’re capable of doing without any guidance. They flail around for years knowing what they should be doing but still trying to “figure it out.” The more you know, the more effectively you can work.

Get It on Lock

While you’re building healthier spending habits, there are some tricks you can use to improve the function of your prefrontal cortex (your decision-making brain.) Even if you feel like the universe is working against you, when your mind is clearer, you’ll make better decisions and come out on top more often.

1. Manage Stress

When we started paying off our debt, I was so stressed working multiple jobs and staring at my loan number that I got shingles. Thank God my body stopped me from living that way because chronic stress is horrible for your decision-making brain.

Chronic stress reduces resilience, impairs memory, and actually shrinks your brain cells. Stress isn’t just bad for the brain; it also negatively affects your heart and immune system, and speeds aging. Nobody wants that.

You can reduce stress by practicing meditation and relaxation techniques regularly. Studies show that just eight weeks of brief daily meditation can increase gray matter in the prefrontal cortex. That means better impulse control and a growing willpower muscle.

If you’re prone to stress, avoid caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine. In addition to costing money, they’re stimulants, so they increase whatever stress levels are already present in your body.

2. Bombard Yourself With Encouragement

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily.” -Zig Ziglar

Positive thinking expands your mind and makes you believe more is possible. It’s the difference between achieving outrageous goals and giving up. But just like willpower, positivity doesn’t last — you have to refill your tank daily.

You can’t manufacture your own encouragement. You can only top this one off with a little help from your friends. And the more the better. Find friends, family, and mentors who get what you’re doing and ask them to keep you accountable, but even more importantly, encouraged. And don’t be embarrassed if you need more encouragement than you assume is reasonable. Everybody needs more on the front end of a big task.

Find 7-10 friends who’ll text you once a month with an encouraging quote or quality they see in you. We live up to the expectations set for us, so surround yourself with people who know you can be great.

3. Sleep More

Sleep deprivation is a type of chronic stress, so in addition to avoiding stimulant substances, try the relaxation techniques I mentioned earlier right before bed. It takes just one good night’s sleep to start improving prefrontal cortex function. Studies show that 6.5-7.5 hours of sleep is optimal.

Understand that the older you get, the more care you have to take to sleep well (yes, even in your 20s). I used to be able to have a few glasses of wine before bed, and now if I do that I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t fall back asleep. Pay attention to your sleep and avoid habits that impede it.

And design your bedroom as a place for sleep. Make your bedroom a place of tranquility and do your work outside of it. Training your brain to think nighttime is sleep time will improve your sleep. Experts tell new moms to keep noise and light in the house during the day and quiet darkness around at night so babies will learn the difference and develop a proper sleeping schedule. If you want to sleep like one, you should too.

4. Exercise

When you’re stressed, you release a hormone called cortisol, which is designed to decrease your reaction time in cases of physical or mental stress. But if you’re stressed because of money and life problems and you don’t have any life-saving decisions to make, that cortisol just hangs around bullying your brain cells.

The best way to burn off cortisol is through physical activity.

A mere 20-30 minutes of aerobic activity can reduce cortisol levels. So when you’re trying to work up the willpower to go to the gym, know that you’re not just working your puff into tuff, you’re getting budgeting-buff as well. (I love rhymes and I’m not sorry about it.)

Side note: Foods with a high glycemic index (GI) increase cortisol levels, which can increase stress and make it hard to fall asleep. If you’re stressed or having trouble sleeping, try consuming foods under 55 on the GI scale.

5. Focus on One Thing at a Time

The less you have to think about and the fewer decisions you have to make, the better the decisions you make will be. That’s the philosophy of the No-Spend Challenge. By focusing on one thing, you won’t have to make any other discretionary decisions about money.

I love the book The ONE Thing by Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. I highly recommend it to anyone embarking on a major life-changing project, like paying off debt. Instead of trying to master all your goals at the same time and inching forward on each of them, the philosophy of the one thing is that by focusing your energy on one thing at a time you can get maximum results from it quickly and move to your next thing quicker.

So if paying off debt is your ONE thing, then make it your ONE thing and cut the clutter to achieve it fast. You’ve only got one brain, so stop wearing it out and work it smarter, not harder.

You’ll discover an ease in budgeting and saving you didn’t know was possible.

Doing It the Right Way

You don’t need to look at your budget every day on a No-Spend Challenge. The goal is to build willpower and confidence to become so competent that living under budget is a habit.

When you get bummed about budgeting, take a note from productivity expert Carey Bentley. She has an excellent summary of the phases we’re all trying to get through to achieve our desired habits.

Stage 1: Unconscious Incompetence

Here you’re doing it wrong but you don’t know you’re doing it wrong. It never gets easier seeing friends and family at this stage. But you have to remember you were there once, and this is where we all start.

Stage 2: Conscious Incompetence

You can start seeing what you’re doing wrong but you’re still doing it wrong. This is where most people linger. I was here for a long time, held back by fear — trying all kinds of things to but not finding anything that worked. This is an easy stage to get stuck in.

Stage 3: Conscious Competence

You’re doing it right but it’s taking a lot of brainpower and effort. You can’t stay here for long. Here is where people trying to achieve “moderation” get stuck and regress back into conscious incompetence. But this is where the No-Spend Challenge is most valuable. It’s an extreme method meant to make a big impact.

Stage 4: Unconscious Competence

Finally, you get to the point where you’re executing healthy habits without giving them a second thought. The more you practice and strengthen that willpower muscle, the closer you get this stage.

I don’t feel bad saying I’m not here with my spending yet. I still have a long way to go, but I’m always improving. It’s a lot easier to say “no” to myself and not automatically drive to Target when I feel bored.

Life is full of lessons. You don’t start out knowing how to do everything, and even when you learn what to do, you don’t do it right at first. You may even fall back into doing what you hate. So have grace for yourself and keep going.

GO DO THE THINGS:

• Write down your ONE thing
• Find some encouragement buddies
• Go to bed an hour earlier (ie., don’t watch that next episode of Orange is the New Black.)
• Exercise for 30 minutes