At almost every Christmas dinner, most people have a strategy for dessert.
You might be full.
You might not have space for more turkey.
But somehow… there’s always room for panettone.
(Insert your favorite dessert here🧁)
That same strategy shows up everywhere else in life.
Researchers call it mental accounting, a concept from behavioral economics popularized by Richard Thaler.
Mental accounting is when we put things into invisible buckets and then treat them differently depending on the label.
“Vacation money.”
“Emergency savings.”
“Fun money.”
Same money.
Different rules.
Same time. Different rules.
We might not have time for reading but somehow scrolling and Netflix get into our schedule just fine.
"Mental accounting is a behavioral economics concept where people mentally categorize money into different "accounts" (e.g., savings, fun money, bills) based on its source or intended use, rather than seeing all money as interchangeable (fungible). This leads to irrational financial decisions, like spending a tax refund freely as "found money" while being strict with earned income, even though the money's value is the same."
That labeling matters more than we like to admit.
What this keeps reminding me, again and again:
How you frame things determines what you end up doing.
You can make something feel heavy, restrictive, and draining.
Or you can make the exact same behavior feel meaningful, energizing, even exciting.
You can even trick yourself into building the future you want🧠
Today's example.
Someone asked me at the gym,
“No days off, huh?”
I smiled.
“No days off from investing in myself.”
I’m taking these 2 slower work weeks to invest heavily into my future:
– learning the AI tools I need to work smarter
– building strategy muscles I know I’ve neglected
– training for a personal breakthrough
Same actions.
Totally different frame.
“No days off” sounds like pressure.
Like force. Like a have-to.
Like pushing through exhaustion and missing out.
“Investing in myself” feels like a privilege.
Something I get to do.
Something I can’t wait to start each morning.
That distinction matters more than any motivation hacks ever will.
When clients struggle with consistency - health habits, focus, priorities, scrolling instead of learning - it’s rarely about discipline.
It’s almost always about the story they’re telling themselves. About that mental accounting, when we find money on another gadget but not on the course, or coaching that'll build our future.
And I don’t know about you (do you), but I won’t remember the cake I “deserved.”
I will remember how I feel in my body, my mind, and my work for the whole next year.
Over to you dear reader,
Are you in a season of investing in yourself, or in a season of eating all the cake?
And more importantly, does your mental accounting build the future you want?
