I’ve been preaching the debt-free talk for years now and even though we aren’t a 100% debt-free yet, we’re very close to meeting that goal.
And as such, I often get asked about the “how” we did it and I’ve shared often the how behind our success in paying off the debt that we paid off. But I want to bring to light the reason behind why most folks fail to become debt-free.
Becoming debt-free isn’t easy and if you’ve ever ventured on this journey, you know that firsthand. It’s harddddd to dig yourself out of the pit of financial hell.
The thing is this, we become comfortable in our misery sometimes. Sometimes we look at everything we’ll have to do in order to achieve a goal and we become overwhelmed and eventually we talk ourselves out of taking action towards that goal.
And believe it or not, this happens to thousands of well-intentioned people trying to start the journey towards debt-freedom.
How do I know? Because we’ve been there. We started the journey a few different times before we actually succeeded with it.
And you may be thinking to yourself, “but that doesn’t make sense – if you’re struggling financially you have no other choice but to become debt-free! Why would you stop???”
Most folks don’t intentionally stop on the journey towards debt-freedom and they certainly don’t strive to turn around and go back in the other direction, but they do. They do it because they hit a roadblock – like I did when it came to giving up my dream car in order to make us $18,000 lighter.
For months I put off getting rid of my Tahoe – it was my dream car and I was hard pressed to give it up. I simply didn’t want to live without it. The sacrifice of getting rid of my fully-loaded Tahoe for an older, not as nice Sequoia was so challenging that I literally bursted into a full-on ugly cry as we left the dealer and drove home in our “new” Sequoia.
My husband even looked at me and said, “are you going to be okay with this because if not, we’ll just go back and get the Tahoe back because I can’t handle all of this meltdown.”
No joke, I wasn’t okay with letting go of my prized possession in favor of dumping debt. Most folks when they read the Tahoe story get upset with me because I wasn’t grateful for the Sequoia which to so many folks is an incredible car (and it is).
The thing is, I struggled to be grateful for the ability to pay cash for the Sequoia because I didn’t realize how much of my identity was tied up into the kind of car I drove. And driving around in a car with rust spots was making me physically ill.
Now flash forward three years and I wouldn’t trade my Sequoia for that Tahoe I had for anyone’s money. But in the moment, letting go of the Tahoe was earth-shattering.
Now maybe for you, you don’t care what kind of car you drive so long as the dang thing runs, but maybe the idea of living in a house with one bathroom would totally freak you out. Or maybe the thought of having to wear clothes solely bought at Walmart would crush you. Or maybe the idea of having to put off buying a new washer and dryer until you save up cash for it is heart-wrenching.
We all have something that we can’t imagine having to live without or making do with and sometimes that very thing is burying us in a hole so deep we can no longer see the sunshine.
We all have something we can't imagine having to live w/o but sometimes that very thing is financially burying us.Click To Tweet
So I want to encourage you that if you’re on this debt-free journey and struggling to stay motivated on the journey, that action is the only why to see the change you desire.
A quote I refer to often (and that sits on my desk so I can see it everyday) is from Tony Robbins:
“Execution trumps knowledge every day of the week.”
You will literally never achieve the things you dream of without action. So if you’ve stalled on the journey towards debt-freedom, I want to encourage you to take action TODAY, even the smallest bit of action can have an incredible impact.
If you’ve hit a roadblock and need some prayers or advice on how to keep going, comment and let me know! I love to encourage and motivated you towards success.
P.S. Want to know one of my favorite apps for tracking your debt-payoff? This app by Jackie is amazing but it is only available on iPhone sadly.
The post Don’t turn back! Staying motivated to pay off debt. appeared first on Jessi Fearon.