Stop banging your head against the wall (metaphorically speaking) and get to where you want to be.

Years ago (actually decades) I was taking a math class at the local community college.
Our teacher was an extremely kind and gracious lady of about sixty.

 Over the fifteen week course she would regularly say something that has stuck in my head ever since. 
Why exactly I still can't say but it did. When ever anyone would complete an assigned problem, she would often ask us.

"Does your answer make sense?"

It was pretty clear to us she was asking us to collectively double check our work to ensure we weren't just being sloppy or too lazy and flunk the test she took the time to teach us.
For whatever reason "does your answer make sense" has proven to be more often than anything else, the first thing I ask myself when I'm metaphorically banging my head against the wall. 
Not always perhaps, much more often than not.

Over time I believe I've come to understand why her advice works as well as it does and what she really meant by it.

The reason I've included this and articles like this in what's supposed to be a personal finance blog is this.
Personal finance isn't just about numbers.  It's about the combined forces brought together when you bring together the numbers, the time it will take you to reach your goals,
avoiding those things most likely to derail you, and at least a dozen other factors not primarily based on math.

Maybe I'm a slow learner or perhaps younger Scrooge wasn't that interested in well-disguised metaphors no matter how incredible the teacher proved to be.
But eventually it's clearer meaning comes into focus.
 At least to me.

Today I'm pretty sure she wasn't asking anything about our assignments only.
 She was, I'm convinced telling us we know the right ways to complete work VS the wrong way. 

In other words, our class, and now you, know what it is you should do and why.
In truth you nearly always do. 
The solution is simple but that doesn't make it easy.
The solution is to just do what you know to be right. 
Deep down most of us already know what that means.

I'll state this part clearly and not wrapped in a metaphor. 
The moment you find yourself in some quandary and aren't sure what to do ask yourself this.
 Am I actually uncertain or am I just not facing up to a conclusion I would rather avoid.
 Many of you will find that you knew the right answer you just don't like it.
Like it or not isn't as important as whether you can accept it.

We all pride ourselves as exceptional for our abilities to see things as they really are.
In fact far fewer of us than we would like to believe do. 
So face with the clear vision required.
Make sure it passes the sniff test.