Your Motivational Guide: How to find your support when family + friends are not enough
The weight of debt can be quite overwhelming but having a support system to cheer you on can make all the difference. Sometimes you may not have that support.
Here are 5 ways I have experienced to build support surrounding our debt free journey.
1. Work In Silence. Quietly tell your close friends and some family about becoming debt free and your reasons why. Do not go all out on social media to boast this goal. You may be setting yourself up to receive a huge wave of negativity from people who won’t allow themselves to believe a huge feat can be accomplished.
We faced many skeptics and people who just wanted to wait and see if we could actually do it. They weren’t really supportive but would’ve been the first to say, I told you so! Cody and I decided not to tell anyone unless a person explicitly asked why we weren’t attending game nights or dinner dates or just social events in general. We eventually got the feeling our goal of becoming debt free was ostracizing us from the societal norms preached to everyone. Older people said we were wasting our time working to get out of debt. They wanted to see us begin a family, travel more and spend holidays/events with family. This made no sense to us because ALL of those tasks cost MONEY! Money we did not have.
Our societal conscience had changed to believe if we did not have the money, we weren’t going to participate. Plain and simple. So many people are living paycheck to paycheck while at the same time, meeting for drinks with friends, clubbing on the weekends and eating out. We thought, what kind of life is that for our future? What if we got pregnant with no money saved for Dr. appointments or baby essentials? We didn’t want to live without an emergency safety net. There were a few people who didn’t understand. We had to go through the back and forth of “elders” telling us to live life young…..but what about the future? I was 27 and Cody was 29. All we have is our future. Completely. Debt. Free.
2. Join A Small Group. There are plenty of hashtags to search to follow a slew of people on their debt free journey (#debtfree #debtfreelife #debtfreescream) . There are also local groups on FaceBook where you can swap tips and have your questions answered by those who have experienced what you may be going through.
The bonds formed there are strong enough to keep you pursuing your goal of getting out of debt. Utulize what you already have at your fingertips! Drop a line or question in the comment section or email and I will be sure to address it. There is good in social groups. Don’t count them out!
3. Create A Vision Board. Ok, this isn’t some 4th grade vision board. This is a goal oriented board with specific details on the timeframe of future accomplishments. Put it somewhere you see it everyday. Your clear goals will remind you of what you are working towards.
Our vision board was pretty basic. It was written in list format of our smallest to largest debt, void of interest rates. We crossed off our accomplishments as we went. Watching the debt get paid and seeing it every day kept up our moral when our friends and family stopped being active cheerleaders for us.
4. Don’t Punish Failure. You may fall off your debt journey for a time. The goal is to finish and as humans, mistakes will be made. Give yourself some emotional head space of accepting a drawback. The most valuable thing that can happen from a mistake is the learning experience. Now you know what not to do and may move on to do better.
5. Encourage Personal Happiness. Check in with yourself and make sure you are happy while completing this debt free process. Positivity is infectious and mental health is IMPORTANT. If you’re actively happy you will contain a sense of confidence and satisfaction in your debt free journey.
Cody and I constantly asked one another if we were happy. If we weren’t or just answered indifferently we took a step back and found the reasons why we may have answered that way. Sometimes it was chores being completed and what our marriage roles were. We knew if we weren’t satisfied in our personal life, then there was a possibility that negativity could affect our goal of financial freedom.
Love this! My vision board is more list based as well. I keep it in my bathroom on a large sticky note and update it often. Weird, yes, but it works! Great post 🙂