First off, I have something to brag about. My family is debt free. We have been working on it since the Fall of 2007. It has been hard, but it is totally worth it. We are now able to build wealth and are not controlled by the banks. What would your life be like without payments?
Now the topic of the day.
One of my goals this year is to increase the number of people I reach with my blog. Growing this community will take some extra work each week so I am going to make a change. I am going to start releasing these blogs every other weekend so in the off weeks I can focus on growing my community.
This leads me to the topic: Making decisions based on facts not fear.
There is a chance my readership will drop but I am not sure, I do not have the facts. Also if my followers drop off does that mean I do not provide enough quality content to keep them here, or does it mean I now have a core following that care more than the people that dropped off?
I do not know the answers but I cannot let fear drive this decision. Do not be afraid to test your assumptions. If you do not try new things you will have trouble growing.
So if there is an area of your life that you need to change but you are afraid, then make a little test to see if your fear is substantiated. If you make decisions based on unfounded fear then you are going to be stuck where you are.
What change do you need to make that you are afraid to make?
Josh, congratulations on becoming debt free. That is a big, big deal. Now you have control of your greatest wealth building asset–your income.
I completely agree about not making decisions out of fear. I wrote a blog post about how to overcome fear (http://www.immatureentrepreneur.com/overcom-fear/). As you stated, fear can hold you back from greatness.
-Alan
http://www.ImmatureEntrepreneur.com
It is funny, I do not feel that different. I will though when I start seeing the money stay in the account instead of always going out.
Congrats on becoming debt free! A couple of years ago, after talking to me about him for awhile, James Dibben took me to a Dave Ramsey event here in KC. I was already at the point of being ready for huge changes in my life and that event really pushed me over the edge. This month marks two years since my wife and I have been following our Dave Ramsey inspired budget and we are somewhere in the home stretch. At our current rate we still have a year to go, but we did some planning this past week and with a little more sacrifice we may be able to pay off that last credit card by the end of the year. Finally giving Dave Ramsey a chance really changed our lives. My stress level has been negligible these past two years and our marriage, which was good but always stressful where money was concerned, has been better than ever. I’m looking forward to one day being debt free just as you guys are.
Carl,
Thank you. Being debt free is pretty awesome but I am still having trouble making the mental switch to not having debt. It is like I have momentum and I am trying to change course.