Erin
Things have been moving pretty smoothly during the last few weeks. I was able to catch up with Jean last week and had a much-needed discussion with her regarding my progress and my concerns. I explained to her that I felt like I wasn’t paying off debt fast enough. I wanted to control it better. But how can I truly control it better? It’s controlled by my paychecks coming in. I can’t make those come any faster! But she brought up a good point. Maybe I was focusing on a goal that was too big for me to feel like I could accomplish it. This is the exact reason we as humans give up. We make goals that are unattainable, unreasonable, and end up giving us feelings of failure rather than success.
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So I broke my debt goals up into tiny bits. I determined how much extra money I wanted to throw towards debt on a monthly basis (I didn’t have to think too hard because I knew exactly what that number was), and I divided it by four so I could put that money towards debt every week. With this new plan in place, I can see my debt shrink on a weekly basis. I’ve set a goal that I now feel helps manage my perspective of the situation much more effectively. If I can perceive that debt is going away, I’m much more likely to stick to our plan. Even my husband’s eyes sparkled when I set our payments up during the next few weeks to reflect our new plan. I could see his perception changing as well, and he said, “This will really help us feel like we’re getting out of debt.” It’s the first time I’ve really felt that he had hopped on board the debt paydown train with me.
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Next week, we stay on track to pay off our Best Buy card in one lump sum, and the week after that is when we’ll start paying off our debts on a weekly basis. I’m taking my time this week to line up the payments automatically in our bank account so once it starts deducting, I don’t really have to think about it; I’ll just get to watch the debt decrease. Baby steps are the key to being a success at debt paydown. Really, they’re the key to any type of goal you want to accomplish. Making the goal attainable and deciding to bite debt off in small weekly chunks has given me a fresh perspective on this plan (although I will also be trying really hard not to think about what I could do to my wardrobe with that weekly chunk of money!).
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Til next week,
I’m E in TX
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