Why Should I Deny Myself...

I’ve been stewing on this topic for a few days. The thought popped into my head a few days ago while I was driving and just keeps popping up. I’ve started to prepare a message to preach on this very topic, but wanted to get some thoughts out there as it relates to some budgeting, career and coaching.

Many times denial is a negative word that people do not like to talk about. Another way to use denial is to tie it to patience. See, we have to deny ourselves, our family, our work items in order to allow patience to come and bless at some point in the future. Or potential them now may help us to realize that we didn’t really need that in the first place.

We have all had those urgent orders where things must get done now. In my work, we like to call those fire drills. All hands on deck, get this done and get it to whomever asked for it and all problems will be solved. Sometimes these are important, but I believe more often than not if we just stepped back, slowed down and looked at it differently we would see that there is a better way or no need to rush things for this. I’ve written before about my vacation habits and the need for us to truly disconnect from work so that we can come back stronger. All too often we sacrifice some precious decompression time because we have to get something done urgently. I just got back from a 2 week vacation. I’ll admit first, this was the first vacation in a while I did not fully take my own advice, but I did keep distractions to a minimum and for the most part had 10 days of disconnected, no email, no texts/IMs…bliss. What happened? Things carried on, I’m really not as important as I think I am and I enjoyed the time with family decompressing.

Denial of self is something that is embedded in scripture, while I will reserve my scriptural quotes, it is critical that we deny ourselves to help our growth. Fasting is one form of denial. Our bodies will have us eat all day, everyday. As I work from home I am tempted all day to go to the cupboard and grab some kind of snack. There is plenty of research out there though that shows that fasting can help our bodies in many ways. Just look at the intermittent fasting trend and how it has helped people change the way they eat. Not only does fasting help our bodies, it helps our spirit as well. We are able to focus better, draw closer to God and get to the point where God is trying to lead us.

Budgeting is a way to help you deny yourself quick rewards. Earlier this year I removed my Amazon Prime subscription. I cannot tell you how much this has reduced my spending. No longer can I decide I need something and quickly go over to Amazon and buy it. Not only that, I found out I can order plenty of stuff from other areas without giving Amazon $150 a year. When you live on a budget, you are showing yourself this is all I am going to spend, when you pull money out of your account and move it to your savings or investments you are forcing yourself not to spend that money. As those needs come up, look at your budget, where you are at in the month and if you do not have the money you are not going to do it. It is really that simple. Budgeting is a way to stay on track with your finances and deny those simple pleasures or endorphins when we buy something new.

There are 3 areas for self denial that you can explore that will help you with your wellness, well-being and your wealth. Each of these will help you to win, along with countless more, so give them a try and be on the look out for more as I continue to expand my site, get my blog posts updated more and help you meet your goals for your life.