If you open up Google and search for the keyword - ways to get out of debt, you can find a lot of information teaching you how to do so. If you visit Amazon.com or any other book stores, you could find that there are actually many books about how to get out of debt. However, many people are still greatly in debt while there are so much of resources to help them. Something must be wrong here.

Personally, I went through some of sites and books. What I found is there are many great ways ready to help people to get out of debts. Many ways are working! However, it seems like not everyone can really benefit from them.

Getting out of Debt = Losing Weight

Today, I continue my daily evening jogging exercise routine in a local park. I saw a man was sitting on a chair under a tree. He is a big guy and can be considered obesity.

All of sudden, there was a thought came through my mind - I’m obesity and I can tell you that I’m quite fat. Before this I also like this man and spend my whole day siting in front of the computer without any exercising. But today, I’m different because I’m spending my time to exercise and I’m on my ways to lose weight. I can feel that I have been changing my lifestyle and habits so much for the past few months. I kept thinking and finally I found the key that make me changing and improving - motivation.

People actually know a lot of ways to get out debt, just like losing weight. But they fail to do it because they don’t take the necessary actions. Lack of motivation is the main reason why people never take action that they must to. Based on my experience, if they have the enough motivation, they will take action constantly and approach their goals. At that time, nothing will block them and they are definitely on the right track to success.

First, Build Up Your Motivation to Get out Of Debt

Getting out of debt is really like losing weight. There are many ways we can do it but only low percentage of people can make it and stick to it. Only those who have the motivation and take action has the chance to succeed.

For example, in order to get out of debt, first you must keep a journal on how you spend your money. This is a good way which can let you understand your spending habits and things that are taking your money away without your attention. You must keep this journal at least for 3 months to have a clear picture on your current financial status. So what you have to do is keep a small notepad with you. Every time you spend money, you must write down and keep a record.

Above is an example that I usually give to my friends who asked my financial advice. However most of them told me how troublesome it is to keep a journal or they are really lazy to do that. Guess what, they never improve their personal finance and until today they still have the same financial problems.

One of my favorite quote is “What We have today is the results from our past”. What you want in future, you must work hard and take action today. Taking action is the only way to change the future. You must do something to reduce your debt if not it will follow your forever.

But not everyone can take action constantly. Without enough motivation, we cannot take action or even feel lazy to do so. At that time, you will suffer and don’t want to take action anymore because you know it is a pain for you. Then you will give a lot of reasons why you can’t and how useless it is to do take the actions.

I know this because I been through all the process before. Therefore, I always try my best to search and build up my motivation before I take any action. Because I know by only have the enough motivation, we can take action without any blocking and this is the key to succeed.

How to have the motivation?

The key to achieve what you want is motivation and we must focus on this to prepare ourselves. Except we have enough motivation, if not it is useless for us to read 1000 ways of getting out of debt.

I lost total of 30 pounds in the last 3 months and I only can do this after I have enough motivation to keep diet and exercising. So today let me share with you some of the tips that I discovered from my success in weight losing which can be used to achieve any goal. Today, I’m still using it to keep myself motivated:

1. Getting started with small goal. Usually before we get started in anything, we are advised to set a goal. After setting the goal, then we must take actions and approach our goals constantly. But people usually make a mistake here - focusing on a goal that is too big for them pto get started.

For example, Mr. A has $30K total of debts and he wishes to pay them off within 1 year of time. In the first month, Mr. A manages to pay $1000 for his debts but at the same time he is worried too.

He wants to pay off his $30K in 1 year of time so average he has to pay $2500 every month. But in the first month he only pay $1000 which is lower than his goal. So guess what, his confidence level drops! If he doesn’t do anything after this, his will lose his motivation and give up.

From the example above, Mr. A makes the mistake of focusing his mind to pay $2500 in every month. This is the first time he try to pay down his debts and don’t you agree that high possibility that he might not be able to pay $2500 in first month? It is too risky for Mr. A to focus on a goal that is so high because if he just fail the first time, he might lose all his motivation and confidence.

Therefore, I usually set a big goal but split it into multiple small goal. I even make a tiny and simple goal in my first month of weight losing - just jog 300m per day. It is that simple and I can finish it everyday. Along the way, I gain my motivation and confidence. Then only I raise my goal. The theory is same in getting out of debt. Mr. A can get started by focusing to save more money to pay off his debt. Maybe $10 per day. This goal is much more easier than keep focusing to pay off $2500 in first month. Start small, accomplish it and gain confidence is the key here.

We are human and we like to feel the sense of success, happiness, fulfillment and any other positive emotions. We don’t like to feel hard and uncertainty. Therefore we will give up if we can’t feel the sense of success while keep telling our mind how hard it is to take action. So we must learn how to make ourselves feel good right after taking every action. The most effective way is accomplish those tiny goals.

I used to be fat and heavy since I was a child. I know obesity is not good for my body and life. But I still keep eating and never do my exercise. Yeah, maybe there are times for me to take action but I stop everytime I encounter the first obstacle in the process. But this time I’m different. I managed to lose 30 pounds for the past 2 months by exercising and diet control. I never took any pills or weight loss courses. I just do more exercise and control the food that I eat.

This is not easy for me especially in the starting stage. But today I feel that it is easy. Therefore I learn my lesson that we must gain enough motivation then only we have the momentum to move on and carry out our plan to achieve something.

Getting out of debt is same. If we have the motivation, it is easy and achievable for us to get out of it. In fact, we can easily go deeper and deeper if our motivation is low due to the lack of self-control.

You cannot go deeper in debt anymore. Quickly motivate yourself and stand up to fight it. What you do today is for the future. Good Luck.

PS: This Post was featured in Carnival Of Personal Finance #200

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