Deeply rooted habits are not that easy to break! You have to get to the point in your life where you say to yourself, I-HAVE-HAD-IT! And mean it. Something has to happen inside of you. Something that makes you disgusted with the habit that you do not want another day of it in your life. As Dave Ramsey puts it, you need to get 'sick and tired' of being 'sick and tired'. Until you get to that point, you will get on and off the bus countless number of times. It is not much different than procrastination. Telling yourself that you will act on something tomorrow. When tomorrow comes around, you tell yourself you would do it tomorrow and THAT tomorrow never seems to arrive.
You will need to decide that today is that tomorrow so that your brain realizes that now there is no escape. Once you decide that today is that tomorrow, then you must get up and move no matter what!
There are mornings that I have woken up and remembered that my car needed to be cleaned before I left for work, but the idea of getting up a bit earlier than usual to go wash the car if I wanted to get every other thing that needed to be done before I left for work done, would make me decide in my head that the car was not really all that dirty and I could clean the car the next day 'tomorrow'. I would end up going to work with an obviously dirty car and be self conscious all the time while driving my car. You know, I would walk up to the car ready to get going and wince at the sight of the car. It would be too late to do anything about it then if I wanted to go into work early. I could have happily driven to work in a clean car had I just pushed myself out of bed when I should have. I knew the car was not in a good state but excused it away just because I didn't want to get out of my warm and cosy bed. I believe a lot of persons can relate to this. If I had got out of bed against my will obviously, just got out of bed knowing that there was a job to be done, things would have turned out differently with the state of my car and my dignity.
Certain actions take just plunging in to act without over analyzing. It is in over analyzing that I ended up driving a dirty car to work. It is in over analyzing that you tell yourself that you can't possibly get out of debts because it is an entrenched habit and besides you earn an income so as long as you are paying something every paycheck, there are no worries. It is in over analyzing that you tell yourself that you have to spend the money because you need to maintain a certain image and it is not possible to maintain said image without going into debts.
Now this might not be an accurate example to give with having had enough but it should help to make us understand that knowing what to do and holding out on acting, could make us end up in an unpleasant and all be it avoidable situation. A needful action not taken or not taken on time is what has plunged millions into living paycheck to paycheck and seeing it as an acceptable lifestyle. I mean do you realize how many people spend their paycheck before it even comes? A lot I tell you! I have heard normal discussions that go as this: "My debts are so much that this salary coming is already spent" and the response to that by the next person is something like: "My dear, are you telling me? I am presently looking for where to apply for a loan on interest otherwise I can't feed this month" etc Well I am sure this line of discussion is not new to many of us. Yet a vendor dealing in say clothes or shoes walks up to them and these very people are asking to see what the vendor has to sell!
Today I am not not going to be writing a lot. I have decided to let Dave Ramsey speak to you from his wealth of experience so I decided to bring in a clip from one of his you-tube videos that gets me on fire when ever I play it. By the way, all his videos and podcasts get me fired up. No exaggerations there. There is always something new to learn.
The example Dave gives with the gazelle and the cheetah will not be forgotten in a hurry. I had made a small reference to it in my post "Debts Hit List * Quarantine Your Debts!". A woman who had probably been present in one of his teachings similar to this one in this you tube video or maybe this particular teaching even, reminded him of it and how it changed her mindset about how to tackle her debts and spurred her on to act and go at it like all hell had been let loose. Like the gazelle in flight knowing that its life was at that time hanging by a thin thread. That it needed to get away from the cheetah. That if it did not put in all it had in it to gain speed to get away from the cheetah, then it would become meat for the cheetah in no time at all (bear in mind that the cheetah is said to be the fastest animal on dry land and can move from 0 to 47 miles an hour in just four leaps!-Wow!). In this example, the cheetah was used to exemplify debts and all the factors/reasons that get a person into debts. I am also here attesting to this you tube teaching and hope you will have the same experience too.
Note that this man does not know me from Adam but he is one tool with which God is blessing people and setting financial captives free. He even goes on to garnish his teachings with a large serving of humour. I am hoping that his accent will not make it hard to understand him. It is clear to me but after having an aunt who does not easily understand such accents, I am careful not to assume everyone will understand.
Please pay apt attention to the cheetah-gazelle example and do not miss out how he relates it to our real life experience. You are welcome to drop your comments on what you think. Happy viewing and listening!