Feeling bad about yourself won’t help your situation
One of the first things that happens when you stop avoiding your debt and look it head on in an effort to fix it is an overwhelming feeling of guilt.
You feel like you should have started sooner, done more when you could, wasted less money on worthless stuff when you were younger. You feel like you should have never gotten yourself into this mess and it can be very, very overwhelming.
Those feelings are natural, but until you get over them they are just as paralyzing as avoiding your debt altogether. If you do not forgive yourself for your past mistakes (that can’t be changed, because they’re in the past) you are going to just feel bad and still be in debt.
Once you’ve come to forgive yourself, you can make real, positive decisions about how to chisel away at your debt little by little. From looking at getting a second job to looking at getting rid of cable television, there is always something you can do to make a little more money or spend a little less. Even if, in the beginning, you can only pay an extra $20 toward a past-due bill or credit-card debt, do it!
You won’t be able to go from a financial wreck to a financial superstar overnight, so don’t judge yourself harshly for taking baby steps. Everyone has to take baby steps, how else you learn to walk. Eventually it will go faster, but it requires patience in the beginning to lay the groundwork.
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