As we move into fall review meeting season for my clients, I thought I’d share a challenge I’ve been doing. The challenge is #75Grow, from psychiatrist Margaret Duncan. Duncan (whose handle in the digital world is @badarteveryday), writes a lot about using creativity and behavioral methods from the psychotherapy world to enjoy and grow our lives. The idea of #75Grow is to use the acronym “MAPS” to grow certain habits over 75 days. The acronym stands for M-movement, A-avoiding avoidance, P-play and practicing creativity, and S-simplify or say no.
I’ve found it such a great framework that I’ve tweaked it (with Margaret’s permission) to share with you. I’d love for you to give this a read and let me know your thoughts, especially as we prepare for your review meetings and reviewing your goals. I look forward to catching up soon!
Money Mindfulness
Start with your values and goals. Getting clarity here helps you understand if your use of money is aligned with what’s really important.
Before you buy, ask “why”? I’ve been guilty of retail therapy – shopping or spending as a way to feel better about an uncomfortable situation, or just plain old spending mindlessly. Sometimes emotional triggers have us reaching for our wallets rather than just feeling those feelings.
Our smart devices have decreased the friction in our spending. We see a cute dress on Instagram, and 3 clicks later it’s getting shipped to us, and we’re out $100. How can you resist these temptations? One way is to just scroll less. I take social media apps off my phone for most of the day, and this seems to be a big help. Another approach is to use old fashioned cash to see in real time how much you’re spending and how much is left.
For anyone navigating the financial decisions of divorce, widowhood, or any major life transition, mindfulness can help us make calmer, clearer financial decisions.
Avoiding Avoidance
This is my personal theme right now. While there are plenty of areas in life where I take charge and knock tasks out, there are others (hello, bookkeeping!) that I dread and am likely to procrastinate on. Understanding WHY we are avoiding a task can diffuse the dread a bit, and help us address the problem at hand more effectively.
Last December I did an "Avoidance Advent Calendar” (idea also from Margaret @badarteveryday) and essentially gamified addressing tasks I’d been avoiding. Identifying the task, an amount of time to work on it (even if you don’t finish), and rewarding yourself with a small treat (doesn’t have to involve spending money! Think: time reading, watching a favorite show, painting your nails, having a cookie, etc.) Task, Time, Treat. Knock out that list, and trust me, you will feel better. And if these are financial tasks, your financial plan will feel better too!
Play/Practicing Creativity
I don’t want to ever have a client reaching retirement without knowing how they will spend their days once they are no longer working. This is why I regularly ask clients about vacations, hobbies, and interests. I want them to enjoy their working years as well as their retirement, and that generally requires some effort to cultivate hobbies, community involvement, and friendships – not always the easiest thing to do when we’re raising kids and growing our professional selves. But PLAY is so important, in the big and the small.
What brings your pure joy? Music? Drawing? Getting outside? Being silly while washing the dinner dishes? All of these moments add to our life and help us envision a life beyond our working years.
Simplify/Saying No
Finding ways to simplify life. When I worked out at 6:15am four days a week, I laid out my workout clothes before going to bed the night before to simplify my actually getting to class after rolling out of bed still groggy before dawn.
For money, simplifying can mean automating savings and regular payments. It can mean consolidating accounts, or even limiting the number of grocery stores where we make our weekly run.
We can say no to the streaming services that don’t cost much per month, but slowly leak money when we lose track of the multiple platforms that we can’t possibly be watching all of.
Sometimes we need to clear space on our calendars to protect our energy (as well as our bank accounts). Saying “no” to invitations or added responsibilities is easier when we loop this in with mindfulness and understand our values. When we have clarity there, decisions come much easier.
What about you? Could the MAPS framework be helpful to you as we move into the last few months of 2026? Let me know your thoughts!
