A few years ago, my finances sucked.

I had a lingering car note, a pesky student loan, and some dreaded credit card debt, totaling around 25k.

No surprise that my credit score was less than stellar.

David Ramsey and Suze Orman would have been thoroughly appalled.

What’s more tragic is that I had read both their personal finance books in my 20’s, and had been in this situation before

So, I knew what to do, but for some screwed-up reason, didn’t budge.

This is the equivalent of Joe Schmoe, who lost 20 lbs. 10 years ago, only to step on the scale and see he’s regained it.

This sh%t has a way of creeping up on you, if you’re not careful.

More cheat meals on weekends, a beer or two because it’s happy hour, and then a missed workouts week after week, if that.

You look in the mirror one day and then than- Bam!

With a less than desirable midsection or bye-bye arms, you’ve beautifully screwed up-

Again.

Life throwing you lemons, ever present temptation to buy or just plain human complacency gets in the way because livin’ the high life feels good.

Like with your diet, now it’s time to stop digging the financial hole and do something about it.

Having been here a time or two, here’s what I recommend:

Objectively assess your current situation

What’s done is done and there’s no value in crying over spilled milk.

Forgive yourself.

List all your debts out using either a spreadsheet or debt repayment form of your choice.

Make a payoff plan and stick to it

When I had a health coaching practice, one of the things I taught my clients is that you must learn to embody the person you want to be.

Want to be fit?

Study and consistently apply what fit people do — within reason, of course.

Most fit people are not that way because of genetics (though there are exceptions).

They put many reps in to get that way.

And yes, even those who use performance enhancement drugs still must put in the work.

Just look at great Ronnie Coleman put in the reps. Light weight, baby, light weight.

They understand the old adages that:

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

How does this relate to debt?

Look at your plan as your North Star, especially when you start to get discouraged or overwhelmed by the amount of your debt.

Remember the cliché about how to eat an elephant, you start with one bite at a time.

It may take a while until you see some real progress, but with consistent action and a little patience you will eventually get it done.

Trust in the process.

Rather than avoid the numbers, I eventually made it a point of looking at my finances every two weeks, no matter how much it would make me want to cry.

I used the snowball method to tackle every balance from least to greatest, putting in as much funds as I could, while paying only the minimums on the rest to fulfill the obligation.

Yes, it sucked to pay the interest, but I needed to get the momentum going. Seeing progress was more important for long term adherence.

Like dieting, consistency is key.

Track your finances regularly.

Like tracking calories or macros when dieting, regularly evaluating your spending habit may be hard and a little depressing.

There’s very little progress — at first…

But give it a few weeks, you will start to see some changes eventually it becomes something you just do and your actions compounds.

In fact, as bizarre as it sounds, you may even learn to enjoy the process.

Today, I look forward to reviewing my budget every week and have turned it into a game.

I rejoice when I rack up points and miles without paying interest on any purchase.

When I hit certain savings and investment goals, I treat it as leveling it up and increasing my net worth.

Anytime I got extra cash as a gift, award or pay increase, I put at least 80% towards my debt repayment plan.

Instead of paying for items with a credit card, I saved money in a “fun money” fund to pay for it.

A small (planned) splurge here and there, like a “cheat meal,” kept the momentum going.

When one balance was paid off, that amount was applied to the next item on my spreadsheet.

Two years later, I not only had paid off my car note early, got rid of the credit card debt, and that remaining student loan but my credit score shot-up to the high 700’s.

Today, it stays in the 800’s, all because I shifted my mindset around money and refuse to be complacent.

How to Face the Music

No one likes to admit weaknesses or shortcomings. We human beings prefer to view ourselves optimistically because not only is it more palatable, but it makes us feel good.

However, this positive view is a shortsighted one because if everything on the surface is peachy, where is the incentive to change or improve?

As painful as it is, get raw and real with yourself.

I think it’s James Clear who asked a very telling question:

“How complicit are you in creating the situation that you don’t want?”

It’s not eating the cheeseburger every now and then that gets us.

It’s most likely the mindless snacks throughout the day, week in and week out that are the culprits that lead us to our heavy demise.

So, take a hard look at your spending habits.

Do you get triggered to spend because of those retail text messages BOGOs?

Unsubscribe from that sh%t.

Remove the retail apps or at the very least, turn off the notifications.

If social media influencers trigger feelings of FOMO, then unfollow them.

Go all honey badger and don’t give a flying rats a$$ about any of that.

Go all honey badger and don’t give a flying rats a$$ about any of that.

They gain your hard-earned cash, while you stray away paying your sh%t off.

Do you really want that?

Choose you, baby, choose YOU.

Run your own race and don’t compare yourself to others

We are unique individuals with our own genetic makeup, experiences, and dispositions so suffice it to say that we will follow different paths.

However, our competitive nature can sometimes dampen our spirit.

I’m not against competition, because it’s a natural tendency for us to compare and see how we measure up against each other (and it’s total BS not to acknowledge it).

However, there’s truth in:

Comparison is the thief of joy.

Focus on your journey, because you can decide how you will experience it.

Debt sucks, I get it.

But like dieting, if you consistently act on decreasing that number, over time, you will proudly overcome that financial hurdle so you can funnel your hard-earned cash towards investing to build real wealth.

The journey may seem long, but it is worth taking that first step.

I believe in you.