Goals
Jul 24., 2010 
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“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.” – C.S. Lewis
When my wife and I got married a number of years ago, we made a big mistake by racking up a bunch of credit card debt. It’s quite sad to realize you’re still paying off a dinner at Chili’s from years ago. When Thing 2 was born, we needed to buy a new car to accommodate our then 4-person family. Enter another $30,000 of debt for the car loan.
Over the coming years Thing 1 and Thing 2 both attended the same preschool, pretty much back-to-back, which brought with it a large monthly tuition that nearly broke us many times. But we struggled through it because it was the best school we could provide for our kids. Anyway, I think you get the picture. We incurred a lot of debt and financial obligations.
Luckily, we spotted the downward spiral we were slipping into, so we realigned out priorities and made a goal to pay off our car loan and credit cards as soon as possible. And not just one of those “…someday…” types of promises to ourselves, but an actual goal. We threw the gauntlet down at our own feet.
As luck would have it (because we’re certainly not financial strategists), this year will be the year that we finally become debt free. Our car will be paid off in September, our credit cards will be paid off by the end of the year, and Thing 2 will no longer be in preschool (Welcome back, income-that-went-to-tuition!).
This post isn’t about finances, though, or about how debt is bad. Mmmmkay? This is about the importance of setting goals and doing whatever it takes to achieve them.
To reach our goal of becoming debt free, my wife and I have gone without and sacrificed for many years. We’ve used nearly every cent received from birthdays or anniversaries to pay down credit cards – so much so, that people have taken to giving us gift cards instead of money, so we don’t spend it on bills. We pay a little bit extra every month on our car payment just to get that (my fingers are very close together, in case you were wondering) much more ahead of the curve. We’ve sacrificed our nights and weekends by working a second and sometimes third job to pay those debts down.
By being so close to achieving this goal of ours, which was our motivation for dragging ourselves out of bed on mornings when all we wanted to do was roll over and sleep the days away, we realized something else about our goal: It’s almost obtained.
What then? We would soon be a ship sailing without a course.
We felt a slight twinge of panic when we had each realized that in the very near future we would be goal-less. So one night, we sent the kids outside to play and we talked, while folding laundry, about what we wanted – both as individuals and as parents – as our next goal(s).
When we were done, we both felt better because we were each able to outline those things which were and are priorities for each of us. We had a course again; a new destination.
I hope this post doesn’t come across as boastful. We certainly haven’t done everything perfectly because if we had we wouldn’t have dug ourselves into the hole we had to claw and fight and scratch our way out of in the first place. When you’re trying to pay off debt it can seem hopeless and futile, but it doesn’t have to be a forever thing.
There are a lot of posts about how determination and perseverance will help you achieve your goal – regardless of what it might be. What there doesn’t seem to be a lot of, however, are posts encouraging you, once you achieve that goal, to not sit back and relax, thinking about how awesome you are.
Achieving your goal is, without a doubt, something to celebrate and be ecstatic about. After the awe of your own kick ass-itude has passed, set a new goal for a better, happier you and work toward that new one.
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