What is your favorite part about the Olympics? Is it a specific event that always catches your eye, a striking outfit?
For us, it’s hard not to be blown away by the perfection among so many of those athletes.
Watching the events, we may forget how much time and effort these athletes put into their trades. We only see the polished, precise versions of the routines, or the absolute fastest times or highest heights!
We aren’t there to watch them struggle on their way to perfection. We don’t see how many hours the athletes trained, the things they had to sacrifice. Sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves that we aren’t going to get it right the first time. We are going to fall; it’s just a part of life.
The thing that sets us apart, though? What we do after we fail.
Olympic athletes don’t throw in the towel if they have a couple bad days at practice… and we shouldn’t either. We get back out there and try again!
Maybe some of us are not happy with the amount of money we have saved so far for retirement. Instead of giving up on the idea of saving all together, we can formulate a new plan. We can analyze the budget, start reallocating cash, take advantage of IRA contributions. We can take the time to invest in ourselves and our futures.
Maybe some of us have little ones at home and are starting to think about saving for their college education. We don’t have to save as much as we can, as fast as we can. There are investment options to help you contribute at your own pace, while putting the money to work to take advantage of that potential growth.
While the Olympics is a competition, saving for retirement or a life-changing event is not. We are all on different journeys, with different resources, at different points in our lives. There is not one perfect plan for all investors.
One thing we can learn from the Olympic athletes is their power of flexibility. (While of course they are physically flexible, we are talking about their mental flexibility.) If their practice routine isn’t working for them any longer, they will change it. We can do the same thing with our financial plan!
Setbacks in life are part of the journey. If we gave up when the going gets tough, we wouldn’t get to enjoy the fruits of our labor. We won’t sell out when the market is low, just like we won’t sell ourselves short when we don’t stick the performance every time.
We keep our eyes on the prize and keep moving forward.
If you are going through something right now and you didn’t get it right the first time, that’s okay. You can always try again next time. We aim for progress, not perfection. Progress—that’s how we truly go for the gold.
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