{"id":13321,"date":"2023-05-24T19:39:54","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T23:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/news\/how-to-stay-motivated-when-things-are-getting-really-hard\/"},"modified":"2023-05-24T19:39:59","modified_gmt":"2023-05-24T23:39:59","slug":"how-to-stay-motivated-when-things-are-getting-really-hard","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ifintechworld.com\/?p=13321","title":{"rendered":"How To Stay Motivated When Things Are Getting Really Hard"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Even though it\u2019s been nine years since I paid off my $40,000 student loan debt, I still vividly remember that time. I lived as frugally as possible and went to extreme lengths to put as much of my paycheck toward my debt, and there were so many times during that period when the grind of it felt almost too much to bear.<\/p>\n

My wife and I were living with her parents with virtually no privacy, my car was an old beater, my clothes were old and out of style, and I was watching my friends go out and spend money on awesome adventures. I would make a student loan payment and then find myself looking at the screen, thinking, \u201cUgh, this sucks. I freaking hate this.\u201d<\/p>\n

It felt like everyone was passing me up while my life stood miserably still. I drove to work, ate a breakfast sandwich in the car, had basically the same lunch every day, and then rinsed and repeated every day.<\/p>\n

Honestly, I felt like I was living for the sole purpose of lowering some numbers on a screen.<\/p>\n

Sure, there was definitely some satisfaction when I clicked the \u201csubmit payment\u201d button on the Sallie Mae website, but there were so many times when I wondered if all of the trouble was worth it.<\/p>\n

<\/fbs-ad><\/p>\n

I was playing an extremely stressful game of delayed satisfaction. It felt like everyone around me was enjoying their life while I pinched and hustled to pay off my student loans in 18 months.<\/p>\n

Looking back, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019d go to such great lengths if I had to do it again. If I knew then what I know now, I\u2019d focus more on making money rather than frugality alone.<\/em><\/p>\n

The point of the story is this: it\u2019s hard to go against the grain of society and do it for an extended period of time, whether it\u2019s investing, side hustling, or paying off debt. You will feel incredible when you reach your goal, but in the meantime, I want to share some strategies I used to keep myself motivated on the path to destroying my debt.<\/p>\n

1. Surround Yourself With the Right People<\/h2>\n

Okay, I know I said I used all of these strategies, but this first one is one I wish<\/em> I had done. There were so many people who questioned my judgment for trying to reach debt freedom, and I think it was because I didn\u2019t have the right group of people around me.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s hard to say because many of those people were my closest friends and family, and I legitimately believed that I was bettering myself and laying the foundation for a financially successful life. I wanted support, but I just kept hearing people say that I was crazy.<\/p>\n

If I could go back, I would have tried to find people who were on the same path as I was. The internet has made this easier than ever, and since I started running M$M, I\u2019ve seen how powerful it is when you find your corner of the internet with people who are on the same financial journey as you.<\/p>\n

For example, this is the kind of incredible stuff I see in my M$M Facebook group:<\/p>\n

That\u2019s huge. That\u2019s how surrounding yourself with people who share your goals can help you. They motivate you, support you, and celebrate your wins. Social media isn\u2019t always the best for your mental health, but there are corners of it that feel like you\u2019re being wrapped in support.<\/p>\n

2. Change Up Your Routine<\/h2>\n

We all get stuck in routines, and I definitely was when I was working on my loans. Maybe it\u2019s just my personality or something, but I would find myself eating the same food and doing things the same way for days at a time. That, mixed with grinding to make the same student loan payment every two weeks, just felt like my life was passing with no real joy or excitement.<\/p>\n

Monotony is boring, so do something different every once in a while. Go somewhere you\u2019ve never gone before, strike up a conversation with someone you\u2019ve never talked to (which is terrifying for me because I\u2019m introverted), make plans on a whim, take a class, wear something you wouldn\u2019t normally wear, and so on.<\/p>\n

Even though it doesn\u2019t directly relate to your financial goal, I believe changing your routine can put you in a better mental state. In turn, it makes it far easier to stomach the hard parts of what you\u2019re pursuing.<\/p>\n

3. Celebrate Your Wins<\/h2>\n

I was ultra, ultra frugal when I was paying off my loans, and my wife and I very rarely did anything to celebrate the progress I was making.<\/p>\n

The problem I had (and what I see a lot of people in similar situations doing) is that when you\u2019re working on a big financial goal, you\u2019re afraid to spend any money. You are constantly doing calculations like, \u201cI could go out to dinner to celebrate, or I could be debt free one day sooner.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not a fun place to live, and the reality is that you can celebrate your financial milestones in a way that doesn\u2019t compromise your timeline.<\/p>\n

You can make a payoff chart, cook a nice dinner at home, take your kids to the park to fly a kite, buy an inexpensive bottle of wine, have friends over, etc. Just do something to mark your achievements and break up the monotony. I promise that you won\u2019t regret it.<\/p>\n

4. Put Your Life in Perspective<\/h2>\n

You woke up today.<\/p>\n

I mean, take a second to think about that. You\u2019re alive. You\u2019re reading this. How incredible is that?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that your life is hard or beat yourself up because you don\u2019t have enough money invested or the student loans feel like they are suffocating you.<\/p>\n

The truth is that there are people in this world who have far less to work with than many of us do. There are still people who don\u2019t have internet access at home or reliable transportation \u2014 two things that can help you find a solid side hustle.<\/p>\n

I get it; there must have been a lot of pain to put you on the path that you\u2019re on right now. My $40,000 student loan balance lit a fire under me.<\/p>\n

But you woke up today.<\/p>\n

Be grateful for that simple fact.<\/p>\n

5. Visualize Your Future Success<\/h2>\n

I was constantly thinking about what it would be like when I made my last student loan payment. I\u2019d imagine what I\u2019d feel like. I would picture myself clicking the \u201csubmit payment\u201d button for the last time and how my life would change. I saw it over and over again in my mind.<\/p>\n

This visualization practice is honestly one of the biggest reasons that I kept going when things got hard. For me, it was seeing myself have that future success because it felt like nobody else was picturing it for me. And the reality is that most people aren\u2019t thinking about your financial goal, and some are actively rooting for you to fail so they feel better about their own situation.<\/p>\n

It might be hard to visualize it, but just try it because I can tell you that making the last payment was every bit as cool as it was in my mind\u2019s eye.<\/p>\n

6. Document the Journey<\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve seen this in a lot of different mediums, whether it\u2019s a journal, blog, or social media \u2014 documenting the ups and downs makes it easier to keep going.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s ultimately why I started my blog. I had already paid off my debt, but I started blogging to share my journey after I quit teaching to pursue entrepreneurship. I wanted to track my struggles and successes. Hopefully, someone learns from documenting my journey, but it also kept me on track and motivated in those early days.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t tried it before, just start writing things down or making videos about your process. You don\u2019t have to publish for the entire world to see, but at least do it for yourself.<\/p>\n

7. Find Peace With Less (At Least Temporarily)<\/h2>\n

This is the one point I\u2019d almost go back to and revise. Rather than being okay with less, I wish I had started side-hustling sooner. With an extra $1,000 to $2,000 extra each month, I still would have been able to pay off my student loans in 18 months, but I also could have enjoyed my life.<\/p>\n

Back then, I believed I just had to be okay with not having the same stuff or experiencing the same things as my friends (mostly vacations and new cars). I\u2019d see social media posts of all the cool stuff they were doing and start to feel bad about what I was doing.<\/p>\n

It felt like everyone was passing me up, and I just learned to be cool with it because I knew that I was just at the beginning of my journey. They had no idea how far I was about to go.<\/p>\n

When people see you doing \u201cweird\u201d stuff like turning down dinner invites or driving a car that\u2019s old enough to be your teenage child, they don\u2019t realize that you\u2019re just biding your time before you reach greatness.<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that you have to focus on yourself and your own journey. Be sure to treat yourself occasionally, and surround yourself with people who support the life you\u2019re building for yourself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even though it\u2019s been nine years since I paid off my $40,000 student loan debt, I still vividly remember that time. I lived as frugally as possible and went to extreme lengths to put as much of my paycheck toward my debt, and there were so many times during that period when the grind of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[236],"tags":[83],"class_list":["post-13321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-featured"],"yoast_head":"\nHow To Stay Motivated When Things Are Getting Really Hard | iFintechWorld<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Even though it\u2019s been nine years since I paid off my $40,000 student loan debt, I still vividly remember that time. 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