A New Year is here! While many are twiddling their thumbs and coming up with almost insurmountable resolutions this year, we are going to take a different approach and encourage you to think smaller – to break up that “super stellar” resolution into smaller, more bite-sized chunks.
In general, we are not resolution types of people. We even shared here and on our healthy living site about why you shouldn’t set resolutions….they really are meant to be broken.
However, each year we try and find new and creative ways to live more intentionally. To live more fully, to live more financially free. We really do love the term coined by Dave Ramsey of living with “financial peace.” It really is notably peaceful.
We still remember the very day – the very moment actually – we paid off the last of our consumer debt six years ago. Talk about a completely freeing experience! Our world changed dramatically; we were no longer prisoners held captive by the American Dream, but instead felt empowered and free while living in a dreamland, not owing anything to anyone (except our mortgage, we are still working on this).
Breaking free from the bondage of that grand total of $110k in consumer debts seems like it couldn’t have been real. That’s a lot of DEBT!
Saying in our minds….
Saying it out loud…..
Typing it here……
It’s A LOT!
But in the midst of it, we didn’t think of it as $110k of consumer debt. If we had, we would have felt defeated coming out of the gate. Considering it as a whole seemed like a threateningly impossible mountain to climb – it was a devastating perspective. We did think of it this way at first – as a monstrous, overwhelming whole – which is why we kept failing.
But it was when we changed our perspective, started to implement what we now call our 2×2 approach and take each bite in small, digestible chunks that we saw true and real change. It was when we stopped looking at the insurmountable mountain and instead looked at our situation as a series of molehills that we started to achieve true success. By breaking up that mountain into a series of molehills we started to feel real and actual accomplishment. That sense of accomplishment came more quickly with each newly crested molehill. And then, and only then we would look ahead to the next molehill to scale.
The sense of overwhelming went away, albeit slowly at first. But our new-found perspective on our circumstances, and our goals, really made the difference between true success and utter failure.
As you enter a new year, try a different attitude and perspective on for size – or rather a much smaller size. 🙂 It may just make all the difference that any resolution can possibly make!
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