Many people share with me how frustrated they are with their debt but they aren’t quite sure how to stay motivated.
Motivation. That’s the MAGIC word, isn’t it?
And we’re all in GOAL MODE as it is Day 17 of 2019. Whether you have a “word of the year” or a focus or specific goals, you for sure have desires and hopes and dreams for this year. You want change in your life in some area. You want BETTER.
When Blake & I were engaged, we had many hard, honest money talks. Although I loved my career, I also knew I wanted to stay home once we had kids. We also knew that if we’d VERY SLOWLY pay off our $75k debt with just one income and we’d live paycheck to paycheck.
So with those two motivators, we decided TOGETHER we’d pay off our debt fast as possible. You can read more of our story here but it was not a fast journey for us. In fact, it took us over 5 years to get rid of the debt.
So how did we stay motivated for so long?
We didn’t.
The definition of motivation is “the general desire or willingness of someone to do something”.
NEWSFLASH: desire and willingness fade pretty freaking fast. They are feelings. You and I both know that feelings change ALL THE TIME.
So you get my drift. Motivation is not what you and I need to meet our goals. What we need is FOCUS.
In the case of our finances, we need ONE GOAL to focus on until we accomplish it. And then we celebrate it and we make a new ONE GOAL to work towards. That’s why the Financial Peace University system works well for so many people. Because it’s one step at a time and you’re doing nothing else but that ONE STEP.
I recently started reading Gary Keller’s The ONE Thing. He’s freaking brilliant. It’s a super easy read and he shares nuggets all over the place that you can apply to ANY AREA of your life.
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So remember this…
- Motivation is bull-honky. Stop looking for it. Stop wishing for it. Stop waiting for it to come along, hold your hand, and walk you to your goals. (It might show up tomorrow morning but it’ll be gone by lunchtime.)
- Look at your finances. Decide what your goal is for this first quarter. (Yes I’m a money nerd and I think in terms of quarters.)
- Go after that ONE GOAL, and only that goal, UNTIL you’ve accomplished it. Then celebrate. You gotta celebrate every accomplishment.
