There’s a lot of space in between success and failure. 

For example, let’s say you worked out zero days last week so you set a goal of working out five days next week. But then you only end up working out for three days.

Did you fail because you didn’t work out every day? Or did you succeed because you worked out three more times than you did the previous week?

A lot of the difference between success and failure comes down to the lens you see things through. Yet no matter how you frame things, there is one important concept that will greatly improve your life should you choose to embrace it.

Falling off the horse is both a normal and expected part of life. 

Striving for perfection can be a useful motivator but expecting it is a fool’s errand. The key – whether in your financial situation or life in general – is realizing that you will get knocked down and fall off the horse from time to time.

So rather than trying – and failing! – to not fall in the first place, work on noticing when you’ve fallen off course so you can get back on track quicker and faster than before.

When it comes to your finances, a good example of falling off is when your spending gets a bit out of hand. Rather than beating yourself up about it or burying your head further in the sand, you can decide instead to focus on getting back on the horse. 

In this example, that probably means reviewing your cash flow. Doing so will allow you to quickly see what’s coming in, what’s going out, and what might have caused the spending increase. Once you gain that clarity, any necessary course corrections become easier to see and then implement.

So remind yourself that nobody is perfect and falling off the horse is an expected part of life. And when you do fall, just dust yourself off and get back on the horse. Because the more practice you get, the easier it will become to deal with the inevitable setbacks that are just part of life.