You Are Not Stuck In Debt

When you feel like you’re stuck in debt it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, exhausted and even hateful towards money.

But, what if I told you that debt is neither good nor bad?

Before you scoff me off and hit that back button, returning you to whatever rabbit hole got you to this page, hear me out.

Shortly after embarking on my own debt free journey I started exploring personal development and mindset work which is when I discovered Brooke Castillo, founder of The Life Coach School.

Brooke developed an easy to understand self-coaching model that explains, in simple terms, how the Universe works.

When you apply ‘The Model’ to your life on a daily basis, it can help you obtain full control over your life and make you feel powerful in any situation.

Once I understood the model and started applying it to my debt, it changed everything. I’ll show you how you can apply it to your own money mindset and get out of debt for good but first, you need to understand this:

By becoming aware of your thoughts you can take control of your feelings (and in turn take control of your finances).

Knowing that your feelings are what drive your actions and actions create results you can now see that your results start with your thoughts.

Are you following me?

Before I breakdown how ‘The Model’ applies to your debt and show you exactly why you’re staying stuck in debt let’s use a more general example.

Take a rose for example. You may think roses are beautiful, vibrant flowers that fill the room with a delicate fragrance.

Someone else may think roses smell awful and are prickly reminders of ex’s they’d like to forget.

But, the rose itself is neutral. You give it meaning by putting a thought to it.

Just like the rose, your debt is neutral. It’s a circumstance that is neither good nor bad.

You can make your debt mean anything you want.

Let that sink in for a minute.

Isn’t it liberating? Knowing you get to decide what debt means to you?

To Change Your Money Mindset Change Your Thoughts

We live in a society that often defines debt as being bad (consumer debt) or necessary (student loan and mortgage debt).

As someone who had 50k of consumer debt, before I learned ‘The Model’ the shit talk in my head was so loud it would drown out all outside noise.

Anger, disappointment and resentment raged through me and I could easily spew out a list of things my debt was holding me back from.

I would lay awake at night running multiple calculations through my mind, trying to figure out how I was going to get through to the next pay day.

I would often have my full paycheck spent days before it hit my bank account, just trying to stay afloat with my bills.

I was depressed, resentful and no matter what I did, I couldn’t get ahead of it. It literally felt like I was stuck in debt.

So, when I learned that I get to decide what my debt means to me, my mind was blown. I’m hoping yours is too.

I even went so far as to write a letter (that I never mailed cause that would be craaaaazy) to my creditors as a way to start the process of reframing my debt story.

By learning how to reframe your debt story and break through the limiting belief that debt is bad, you’ll be able to start seeing progress in your debt pay off plan.

Here’s how to do this.

Give Your Debt Positive Attention

What do you say to yourself about your debt?

When you repeat the same thought over and over it becomes a belief. This means that if you’re telling yourself you’ll never get out of debt, you make this become true.

The Universe hears this and gives you more debt, or obstacles that prevent you from paying off your debt, so you’ll never get out of it.

When you can flip the script and start telling yourself a more positive story about debt the Universe will have your back and start putting together the new pieces.

For example. If your current thoughts go something like this:

“I’ll never get out of debt. I can’t believe how stupid I was to let this pile up. I’m drowning in interest. I never have enough money to make more than my minimum payment, paying this off is impossible”. The more you repeat this the more it becomes embedded into your subconscious mind, becoming a belief that proves itself to be true.

You have to create new beliefs which start with the thoughts that you tell yourself over and over.

But, you can’t just repeat “I’m debt free” over and over and expect it to become true. If you try this, you’ll create an internal struggle between your subconscious mind and your conscious mind because you don’t truly believe the statement.

Starting with even the smallest shift in vocabulary makes a huge difference. Instead of “stuck in debt” try saying “living in debt”. This minor shift can help you believe that there is an end in sight and it’s possible for you to become debt free.

Program New Beliefs About Your Debt

To be able to program a new belief, the thought has to be believable to you.

Start with “I have money in my bank account” even if it’s only a few pennies this statement is true. “Every dollar I pay towards my debt gets me closer to financial freedom” again this statement is true. “I’m able to pay more than my minimum payment” and do it – even if it’s only rounding up to the nearest dollar, it makes this statement true.

Once you get comfortable with those thoughts and replace the old thoughts with these new ones, you’ll notice a shift in your feelings.

That anger and frustration will begin to turn into certainty and confidence.

When you start to recognize and appreciate these new feelings you have about your debt, you’ll start to take new actions.

New actions create new results – leading you closer and closer to debt freedom.

Notice how each component of ‘The Model’ works with the others. They do not work on their own.

Changing your money mindset alone will not be enough to become debt free.

But, the actions you’ll need to take will start to come to you easier and with more clarity as you start to come at your debt from a place of abundance instead of scarcity.

Believe You Are Not Stuck In Debt – You Can Get Out

As you start programming new beliefs about debt, by creating new thoughts about your debt, you’ll start to believe you will (not can) become debt free.

And when you start to believe you will become debt free it will be easier for you to stay on track with your payoff plan.

How many times have you created a budget only to have it fail within the first 30 days?

Your budget is failing because you don’t actually believe becoming debt free is possible, so you end up self-sabotaging your efforts.

When you’re able to follow the action steps below and develop the belief that you will become debt free, you’ll start to see major progress in your pay off plan.

The mindset that will get you out of debt is the one that stops making debt mean something bad. It’s the mindset that believes you will get out of debt and the one that motivates you to take the actions you need in order to get the results you want.

Recap: ‘The Model’ Your Old vs New Debt Mindset

Circumstance: Living in debt (neutral)

Thought:     I’ll never pay this off.            vs           I will become debt free.

Feelings:     Anger, resentment.                vs          Certainty and confidence.

Action:         Self-sabotage budget.          vs          Create and follow a budget.

Result:         Continue to incur debt.          vs          Pay off debt

Take Action

1. Write down the thoughts you have now about your debt.
2. Review what you wrote and look for ways to replace 1 to 3 of those thoughts with new more positive thoughts as described in the example above.
3. Write those new thoughts down somewhere you will see them each day. Repeat the new thoughts multiple times daily.
4. Anytime you catch yourself falling back into the internal shit talk, acknowledge that you are the creator of your thoughts and choose again. Replace those limiting thoughts with your more positive thoughts.
5. As you get comfortable with cultivating a positive money mindset continue to add more new thoughts.

Remember, you’re not stuck in debt, you’re just living in debt at this time, it’s temporary.