It's Really Happening

 It didn't happen while I was living in the state where I grew up.  It didn't happen in Southern California, my home for twenty-two years.  It didn't happen my first nine years in my new home state of Iowa.  My debt monster had his claws in me so deep that I couldn't shake loose.  That's all about to change soon.  It's really happening.  I didn't do this alone.  In fact, I give all the credit to my wife of thirty-two years.  She's the one who checked out the book from the library at one of the lowest points in our financial nightmare we endured for most of our marriage.  We looked at the steps in the book by Dave Ramsey and made a decision to follow those steps no matter how painful they may be.

Habits are what define who you are.  Everything you do is a habit.  Changing your routine, especially when it comes to money, requires the kind of discipline I never really had.  This required that I make new habits.  My very soul is about to be set free.  I'm already feeling a kind of exhilaration that comes from reaching a mountain top.  I can see the peak.  The air is thin but it doesn't matter.  Nothing is going to stop me now.  The views are already better than anything I've ever seen before.  That debt monster who once weighed 300 pounds is now a scrawny creature about the size of Smeagol from Lord of the Rings. He's on life support because he no longer feasts on the high interest rates I paid as a result of my out-of-control spending.  

If you're struggling with your own debt monster, do one thing and do it today.  Stop feeding him.  All of his power comes from your lack of will power.  If you stop feeding him, he will die.  Don't feel bad for him.  Feel bad for the prison this debt monster locked you up inside.  Feel bad for the life you are depriving yourself of because you want things now and you don't have the discipline to wait until you have the cash.  Have a great day.