The Emotional Stages of Debt: Triumph

Paying off a substantial amount of debt is difficult, but certainly not impossible. With belief and commitment, you can get rid of debt for good. It’s all about getting into the right mindset and really wanting to be free from debt! The road to debt freedom contains plenty of ups and downs and as well as these, you might find yourself experiencing a rollercoaster ride of emotions along the way.

This is the last post in The Emotional Stages of Debt series. If you missed any of the emotions I’ve covered previously, here they are: Fear; Denial; Anger; Regret; Acceptance; Passion; Hope; Peace and Happiness.

Stage 10: Triumph

Can you imagine feeling triumphant about your dire debt situation? Getting rid of debt is a tough slog, there’s no doubt about it.

A slog that you’ll probably make harder for yourself by having random self doubt about your mission to become debt free. Or having bursts of weakness when it comes to not spending and sticking to a budget.

But, even though this emotion could take a long time in coming, as long as you never quit the battle to get rid of debt, triumph will most certainly be yours!

What is triumph?

“The state of being victorious or successful.” Source: Oxford Dictionaries

Picture that wonderful day – that moment even – when you finally make that last payment in order to clear your debts…  What an awesome feeling this will be! You can bet your bottom dollar that reaching this significant milestone in your life will be the result of a lot of blood, sweat and tears.

Once you make that last payment, you’ll have made the journey right through to the end. You’ll be victorious! What will you do next? Will you be making up for lost time bearing in mind the sacrifices that you’ve made so far? Will you put your money to good use? Either way, you’ll be a stronger person inside and out for seeing this challenging journey to debt freedom through from start to finish.

If you’re nowhere near experiencing triumph with your debt and think that such an emotion in this context is virtually impossible, fear not! Because as long as you don’t quit; you won’t fail. That means that you WILL get there.

How to make sure that you become victorious in your battle with debt:

Don’t quit – ever!

If you take one point away from this post, or indeed this whole series, it’s this: please don’t quit the battle with debt. If you quit, you’ll have to start again another time and this will just delay the amount of time that you have to make sacrifices for and impact on your personal life for even longer. Even if you fall off the wagon from time to time and splurge on something, that’s ok. Just get right back on it afterwards. The only way that you can fail in getting rid of your debt once and for all is by quitting. So don’t quit and you won’t fail!

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” Vince Lombardi

Count the cost of debt

I don’t mean this literally because I’m sure you’ve added up the cost of your debt by now. 🙂 What I mean is: weigh up the cost of having debt be a part of your life. Debt is a huge burden, especially if you’re trying to get on in life and are at the stage where you’re thinking about weddings; buying houses; further education; travelling the world or raising a family for example.

It’s totally worth making a lot of personal sacrifices in order to get out of debt. So ignore the ‘noise’ around you and concentrate on setting yourself up for a great financial future. It doesn’t matter what other people are doing (or saying that they are doing) around you. It’s your life that counts and debt doesn’t have to be a part of it.

“The triumph can’t be had without the struggle.” Wilma Rudolph

Make plans for your future

I’ve mentioned in previous posts about the importance of having a vision for your debt free future. This is really great for motivation when debt payoff is taking its toll on you. But this time I want to emphasise the point around planning for your future.

If you don’t have any idea what you want your future to look like once you’re debt free, now is as good a time as any to start thinking about it. What will you do with your money? You might be thinking about saving, investing, buying property or just allowing yourself a little freedom to enjoy yourself more.

Making a plan for how you’ll use your money when your debts are gone is important because without a plan, you could lose track of your new financial goals.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail.” Alan Lakein

Remain victorious after the battle has been won

Feeling triumphant after you’ve got rid of your debt is well deserved. But don’t let triumph tempt you into making bad decisions after your debt has gone just because you could in effect have free reign over your finances once again.

Remember the battle scars, the challenges and hurdles that you will have overcome to get to this stage. Don’t forget that conquering your debt will have taken time, sacrifices and quite possibly a whole new financial education. Hold onto victory by not making the same mistakes as before and helping other people do the same!

“Victorious living does not mean freedom from temptation, nor does it mean freedom from mistakes.” E. Stanley Jones

This concludes the last post in The Emotional Stages of Debt series. I hope you enjoyed it! The reason behind writing this series was to highlight some of the typical emotions that someone in debt can expect to experience. I also wanted to show that debt is a cycle that can be broken and something good can come of a seemingly bad situation. You can get rid of debt! So good luck with your own journey to debt freedom and always aim for triumph!

*Image courtesy of Flickr.