Debt-Free Living: Transforming the Debt Mindset

The world around you is organized to keep you in debt for the rest of your life.   

A couple months ago, I started writing a series of posts called “Getting Out of Debt�.  My intention was to draw from my own experiences in order to give away strategies, tricks, and pointers with practical value for those wishing to live debt-free lives.  I never expected to dwell on the topic of debt for very long, but after writing four articles on the subject, I’ve noticed that the demand for these types of posts seems to be insatiable.  People seem to be very, very interested in learning about how to advance their financial position by eliminating debt.  Since I’ve already given a lot of practical advice for reducing debt in my Getting Out of Debt series, I’m now going to adjust my focus a bit. 

The question I’ve been thinking about is this:  If so many people are so interested in learning how to get out of debt, why are so many people getting in debt in the first place?  What is it that pulls people toward financially overextending themselves?  Why does it seem like the world around us is organized to pull us into debt and keep us in debt for the rest of our lives? 

To answer these questions, we have to look beyond practical solutions and begin to examine the culture or contextual background of the debt mindset itself.  If we can glimpse the deep-seeded roots of the debt mindset, and begin to understand where it all comes from, we can transform it and create something new. 

The truth is I really want to be part of something new.  My motivation is completely selfish.  I see this conversation as an experiment.  The purpose of the experiment is to empower ourselves to re-allocate our personal resources so that we can invest in a new and different kind of world by transforming the debt mindset and creating debt-free lives.  I’ll talk more about that new and different kind of world later on, but first off, we need to do a little work together so that we’re all on the same page.  The work is to notice how much time and energy we invest in the perpetuation of the debt mindset.

I designed the following assignments and questions to create a foundation that we can build on as this conversation progresses.  As you read each assignment/question, take time to address it completely.  If you really want this work to make a difference in your own life, I would suggest using the worksheet I created which you can download from the Verve Coaching templates and tools page, and writing down the answers to the questions.

1)  Spend at least one day keeping track of every time you think about money or debt from a context of scarcity during the course of the day.  Include in your count every time you think about wanting or needing money that you don’t have.  Include every time you notice yourself worrying about money or debt.  Also include every time you notice yourself wishing you had more money for any reason.  Keep a tally of all these instances.  For each instance, estimate the amount of time you spent dwelling on that thought and write down your estimates.  Personally, I tend to catch myself with these kinds of thoughts running in the back of my head on auto-pilot.  In some cases the duration of these background thoughts can be several hours, even though the conscious realization of the thought only lasts a few seconds.  Try to record the amount of time you feel the thought has been present, conscious or otherwise.    

2)  When you have a complete tally, estimate what the number of instances would be as a daily average.  Write that number down.  Calculate the average length of time per instance.  Multiply your daily average number of instances by the average length of time per instance to find out approximately how much time you spend each day dwelling on these thoughts.  Write down the total amount of time per day.

3)  Multiply your daily average number of instances by 7 to get your weekly average number of instances.  Write that number down.  Multiply your total time per day by 7 to get your total time per week.  Write down the total amount of time per week. 

4)  Multiply your weekly average number of instances by 52 to get your yearly average number of instances.  Write that number down.  Multiply your total time per week by 52 to get your total time per year.  Write down the total amount of time per year you spend dwelling on these thoughts.

5)  Considering the results you got from steps 1 through 4, what do you see about the amount of time and energy you spend thinking about money from a context of scarcity?

6)  How does the amount of time you spend dwelling on these thoughts each day measure up against the amount of time you spend working?  Sleeping?  Playing with your kids?  Doing things that make you happy?  Taking constructive steps to advance your financial position?

7)  Your time and energy are valuable resources.  If you could get back all the time and energy from the past year that you spent thinking about money from a context of scarcity, what would you use that time and energy to do, build, or create? 

  What stops you from using that time and energy each day/week/year to build or create a debt-free life?  

Note:  This exercise is only meant to get you looking at how much time and energy you spend perpetuating your debt mindset.  Try not to be overly concerned with the scientific rigor or accuracy of the results!  It’s the thinking that’s important, not the numbers.

If you’ve finished this work, continue reading.  Otherwise, finish this work first before you continue reading. 

 

Earlier, I mentioned that the purpose of this experiment is to empower ourselves to re-allocate our personal resources so that we can invest in a new and different kind of world by transforming the debt mindset and creating debt-free lives.  If you followed the steps above (of course you did, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading on), you may be starting to see what I mean by re-allocating your resources, at least in terms of time and energy.  You may also be starting to see what I mean by investing in a new and different world.  The kind of world I’m talking about is the kind of world you would choose to create if you could free up all that time and energy that up until now, you’ve spent perpetuating your own debt mindset. 

In order to give our experiment the best possible chance of success, we now need to take a closer look at debt itself, so we can better understand how the debt mindset can become so entrenched in our lives.  While we usually only associate debt with money and finances, it may be useful to consider that debt comes in many different shapes and flavors.  For the purposes of our experiment, we’re going to look at debt as an all-inclusive context for living that affects all aspects of our lives. 

Consider that within the debt mindset, debt expresses itself financially, emotionally, physically, spiritually, nutritionally, creatively, and so on.  One of the reasons why debt is so common and holds such power and influence over people is because we often relate to it as a condition that exists only in our finances.  When we attempt to conquer financial debt without considering all the other facets of debt, we’re only addressing one small part of the problem.  In fact, we may only be addressing a superficial symptom of a much deeper condition.  This way of addressing debt is like taking aspirin for pain associated with a broken arm, but never actually fixing the arm itself.  I don’t know about you, but if I were going to re-allocate my personal resources to invest in a new and different kind of world, I would want to get my arm looked after first.  When it comes to transforming the debt mindset, the chips are stacked against us to the extent that we’re willing to tolerate, cover up, or ignore our broken arms.  

     debt free living

Debt-Free Living: Transforming the Debt Mindset will be continued soon.  In the meantime, I welcome your thoughts, observations, or questions on this first installment.                                              

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