Ah! I have to share with you my biggest failing… it has to be ‘carelessness’… And I’ll share with you why I think so…
When I bought my little portable PC, the Aspire One in the UK, I was very careful to make sure that I had all the documentation for a tax refund. The ACER Aspire One was purchased in John Lewis in Welwyn Garden City for GBP299.00 of which I was entitled to a tax refund of approximately GBP20.00 (it’s not a lot, granted, but anything to reduce that credit card bill that is staring at me!).
Well, I lost the paper work, I also lost several other sets of paperwork, after carefully keeping them for three weeks on numerous flights and in lots of different places. Last weekend, I reminded myself that I had to go to the post office, and promptly didn’t go. After that, the paperwork just vanished without a trace. Of course, I could have just filed the paperwork in the UK, as I intended to do, but I procrastinated going to the post office, made all sorts of excuses, and finally I lost the paperwork.
Were this the first time, I would’ve been more forgiving of myself but it’s not? I’ve lost items and documents frequently, including…
- 1. leaving my bag with money OUTSIDE all night;
- 2. throwing my passport in the toilet;
- 3. losing my bankbook(s) more than twice;
- 4. losing my ATM cards more than three times;
- 5. lost several wallets; and much more…
I’ve tried all manner of ways to compensate for my own carelessness, including making a much bigger effort to organize myself, file papers and documents properly, and keep money properly… but the systems usually breakdown when I don’t follow it properly for whatever moment of inattention I am prone to. It’s at that point that things go awry. I’m much better organized than before, but still the effort I put into organising my bag hasn’t been successful, so…
When you know your weaknesses, it’s best to work out ways to compensate for them before they become a problem, especially if you can’t fix them!
Have you a ‘financial weakness’? How does it affect your life? What did you learn about yourself because of it?
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