Eliminate the Debtor Attitude

While I have identified five areas that are critical to achieving real financial freedom, the most obvious one is dealing with debt. It is impossible to make significant progress toward financial independence without first learning to live without the constraints of debilitating debt.

Remember, attitudes are habits of thought. It is the way you consistently think that determines your behavior. For that reason, the first and most important key to eliminating debt is to change the way we think about it.

If you have any debt it is because you first thought it; you decided it was OK and then you took it on. Consequently, we must first learn a new way of thinking if we ever expect to eliminate debt from our lives.

We need to recognize that debt is not OK. We need to decide that it is unacceptable. We need to choose to eliminate it from our lives.

The basic attitude we want is the one often expressed by Dave Ramsey. His expression is as simple and direct as it gets: “Debt is dumb.”

Here are three affirmations that can help us change our thinking to one that promotes financial independence.

• “Debt makes me a slave so I am claiming my freedom by eliminating it from my life.”
• “I despise debt and will no longer have anything to do with it.”
• “Every day I feel greater and greater freedom in life because I owe less and less and have more and more money.”

Read or quote these affirmations once a day for at least a month. Then continue once a month or more until all debts are eliminated or at least until you are certain your attitude toward debt is forever changed.

Remember that living debt free must become your chosen way of life if you want to live free.