It’s a horrible feeling getting into debt. It can feel as though you’re at the bottom of a pit, and as though there’s no way to possibly get out. With each passing day you will probably be accruing more debt thanks to the nasty interest you’ll have to pay, and rather than doing anything about it you’ll probably feel just like curling up into a ball and pretending it’s not happening.
Unfortunately though, getting out of debt requires effort and work on your part, and perhaps the biggest influencing factor in your success at least to begin with is how motivated you can be to start getting to work.
In many ways in fact, getting out of debt is just like getting into shape. Read on and we’ll look at how the lessons that apply to getting into shape can also apply to getting out of debt…
Regular Jobs
A big mistake lots of people make when trying to get into shape, is to come up with a lofty target of losing ‘x’ amount of weight or gaining ‘x’ amount of muscle by a certain date. This is all fine and well, but the problem is that this kind of goal setting places the focus in the wrong place. You shouldn’t be thinking this far ahead to what you want to eventually achieve yet, instead you should be thinking just about what you need to do each day to get there. That means coming up with a routine and just making your goal ‘do this routine every day’. That way your results will be much more directly controlled by you, and you’ll have a much more concrete way to measure them and to know whether you’re managing it effectively. The same goes for debt – don’t vaguely think you want to be out of debt by ‘x’ date by spending ‘less’. Rather, think about how you can save money each day and then commit yourself to following those guidelines every single day.
The Emotional Element
Another thing to think about is the importance of the emotional element when it comes to getting into shape or getting out of debt. The problem for most people who fail to stick to a training program is not that they have the wrong program, but that they’re just not approaching it with the right mindset. What’s crucial then is to be able to think realistically about what you’re trying to achieve, and then actually go out and achieve it without letting emotion get in the way. This is particularly important when it comes to debt, as often we will buy things to make ourselves feel better – or do other silly things like take out more loans when you should be saving towards home loans. As with any goals, the most important thing to do first is to get your head in the right place. Once you’ve done that, you can then start making real progress and seeing the positive impacts of that hard work…
