One Million and Beyond

Maintaining Focus on Debt – remember the baby steps

By Matt - Monday, August 17th, 2009

A few weeks ago I decided to start focusing on my finances and on my debt again. At first I was all full of ideas and wanted to tackle the problem right away. But based on previous experience I was pretty sure that I would hit a wall eventually and rather than jumping in full tilt I decided to start slower by looking at my expenses for a few weeks first. I’ve started to notice my motivation wane a little but because I didn’t try to solve all my financial problems at once I am not burned out by the idea just yet.

For me failure or setbacks aren’t always a bad thing, as long as you learn from them. Because I have encountered issues with keeping my motivation high while trying to achieve a goal I know what to look for when making a second attempt. One of the really big things that I notice that I tend to do is to try doing everything at once. Unfortunately the only thing this accomplishes is to overwhelm me so when tackling a new goal I try to start slow even though I know I can handle more. By noticing the small warning signs that come up you can take steps to push through to eventual success.

Maintaining focus – small steps

Have you ever noticed how many people sign up for gyms only to stop going after a few months? They don’t ease themselves into their routines and when they don’t see results right away they give up. Most of the time they go into denial for a few months until they realize how much they’re paying a month for the gym membership that they never use at which point they quit. Maintaining focus on your debts and your finances isn’t any different. You have to start with small steps and goals.

Just as you see your motivation waning you can stop and realize how many of your small steps you’ve accomplished. This week marks my 2nd month of weekly budgeting and although I was late a few times and I missed a week I have managed to keep my updates going. It’s a small step and I haven’t really done too much but its progress and just seeing this makes me want to take the next small step. Another great small step I took was to start paying myself first and setting aside money – again only a small step at $50 per pay but I’m seeing some small results.

A thousand mile journey starts with the first step.

Whenever I see someone incredibly successful I am amazed by what they have accomplished. What I often forget is all of the small steps that they took to get to where they were. Take Bill Gates, he’s one of the richest men in the world and he was one of the founders of Microsoft. He didn’t wake up one day a billionaire; he fought tooth and nail to make that company a success. A series of small steps. When you’re having trouble staying focused on repaying your debt or growing your investments remember all the successful people around you didn’t have any more than you did (some probably less) they took small steps each one forward until they got to where they were going.

Now whenever I feel that I am starting to loose my motivation and focus I will take small steps but keep taking these steps. Because every step forward is just that a step forward no matter how small it is. Babies learn to walk slowly and one step at a time; sometimes you just need to go back to that mentality.

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