Go Backwards to Get Out of Debt: Make Your Second Million First

When you decide to get out of debt the first thing you have to do is change your mind. Eliminate the sense of entitlement that you have to purchase things regardless of the amount of money you have in your pocket. Putting things on credit only hurts you. Any debt is bad debt.

To start changing the way you think, you're going to invoke the law of attraction. If you want to be a millionaire, think like you already are. This reminds me of the joke about the second million being easier to make than the first. So I'm just going to start making my second million first…

This invokes the law of attraction in a fascinating way. Instead of telling your mind that your first million is too hard to make, you tell your mind that you are in the process of making your second million. This makes it much easier to do the things you need to do that you said you'd do.

For example, when I was a kid, we were all trying to rocket up from the bottom of the pool and touch the diving board. We thought this would be impossible. We kept trying over and over to do it.

Then the lifeguard (who was a bit arrogant) came over and did it in one try and walked away again. Our mouths fell to the floor. We couldn't believe it. After that, we tried again. You know, every single one of us was able to do it because we knew it was possible now. It's much easier to do something if you know it's been done before.

It works this way when you try to get out of debt, too. The trick is to identify your goals. This way you can focus your efforts down to a yearly, monthly, weekly, and daily effort. At this point every small step you make will feel like a giant step in the accomplishment of your goal.

Let's say you want to pay off $5,000 dollars by June 1, 2010. You have 12 months to do this. You will need to pay off in installments of almost $100 a week. Even if you can't make this weekly payment (and you can), go to the bank and put a penny in savings towards it and say to yourself, "I just paid off my debt today."

Write and say your goals as if they've already happened. As you congratulate yourself, your mind feels inspired to do it again. Refer to your big goal as if it already happened in order to get there and work backwards.

Living debt-free is the best feeling. When you stop thinking of reasons that you deserve to put yourself further in debt, you have just eliminated a major stressor in your life. Your self-worth and self-esteem will go through the roof. As a result, you'll feel inspired to keep on doing more of what feels good to you.