“The Best Way Out is Always Through”: Stay Motivated and Eliminate Your Debt
Posted by Brad Chaffee on July 13, 2011 in Dump Your Debt
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Anyone who has ever attempted to save money or pay off debt knows that a bully named Life can show up at any time and ruin the day. As Dave Ramsey often says, “If it can happen, it will,” and when it does, it can knock us down.
Life is tough, but if you keep your eyes on the prize, you can be happier, healthier and totally debt free.
We became debt free in 2009 and here we are in 2011 right where we started – with zero. The truth is we’ve saved and spent around $18,000 in just the last year. We paid off our second mortgage, gave money to our church, bought a minivan to accommodate our growing family, and took a last minute trip to visit my daughter seven hours away.
When we were paying off our debt, we faced the hard reality that we were losing our motivation. We were in the final leg of our journey, paying off our last and largest debt. The absence of small victories along the way really impacted our desire to continue.
You might start to feel like you’re not making progress towards your goal and decide it’s not worth it to continue because you’ve already invested so much time and effort with little results. That’s not only true of becoming debt free. It is a reality in all that we do.
Paying off debt is much like losing weight: The ability to stay motivated will determine your eventual success or failure.
In February I started taking weight loss seriously and lost about 39 pounds. Now I’m struggling after falling off the wagon and putting a little weight back on. The fact is that I’m still lighter and healthier than I was when I started. My work hasn’t been for nothing.
If I give up now, I’ll likely gain it ALL back and end up right where I started. But regardless of what obstacles are put in front of me, ultimately my goals haven’t changed, and I know I need to put my feet to the fire. I can either jump back on the wagon and regain my momentum or give up and never reach my goals.
Just like me, you created your financial goals because you saw the value in becoming debt free or ending the cycle of living paycheck-to-paycheck. You may hit a few hurdles along the way, but becoming debt free is still as important as it was when you started. Don’t give up!
As I look back to the time right before we became debt free, I am so thankful we didn’t give up. We were close. We were mentally drained. We thought we had no more. When it was all said and done, we took a vacation to refresh our will and determination, and came back focused and ready to kick butt.
Stay focused, remind yourself of why you started this journey, and you’ll be just fine. We reached our goal, and you will too!
Are you working to eliminate your debt? Do you have a debt-related success story? Share your insights, comments, or questions below in our comment section.
Brad Chaffee is a PerkStreet Customer Columnist who also authors Enemy of Debt, a place he passionately but candidly tackles the psychological issues related to our own habits and behaviors regarding money. Brad and his family crawled out from under $26,000 of debt and some major bad habits to become debt-free in 20 months, and he believes that if they can do it, you can too! Aside from his blog, you can connect with him on Twitter and Facebook.
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