Seven Steps to Life After Debt

On The Wealth Chef social media channels I frequently get questions from people feeling desperate and unsure where to turn because of the level of debt they have.

Here’s what I’ve suggested.

Start first by working on your self confidence and self worth.
Be kind to yourself.
Notice the language you use with yourself.
Free up the energy you have been using to beat yourself up to use on getting free from debt.

➤ Focus is key.

Energy flows where focus goes – and for a while all your focus may have been on your debt. That is preventing you from breaking free from it and moving forward to living the life you desire.

This may sound woo–woo… but stay with me.

Step 1 – IMAGINE

Get very clear on what you want and why you want it – not what you don’t want.

Spend time on this.

Write out your ideal life. See it, feel it, get excited about it.

Write it in the present tense and in the first person –

“I am doing ________”
“I am having ________”
“I am creating ________”
“I am experiencing ________”

This will start changing your focus in the direction of the life you want and will help you to create it.

Start every day by reading this through, getting excited about it, adding to it and consciously changing your focus from worrying about your debt to creating the life you want.

If you are finding this step tough – which many people do – get the “What the Bleep Do You Want?” masterclass to help you get this sorted once and for all.

Step 2 – BE PROUD

Every night while you’re brushing your teeth before you go to bed ask yourself these five questions.

What am I proud of in my life right now in relation to my wealth and my money?
What am I committed to in my life right now in relation to my wealth and my money?
What am I excited about in my life right now in relation to my wealth and my money?
What am I grateful for in my life right now in relation to my wealth and my money?
Who do I love and who loves me?

Now here’s the deal. You can’t stop brushing until you have at least one answer in each category.

Look on the bright side.

Either you’re going to end up with the most amazingly sparkly clean teeth… or you’re going to have discovered so many things that you’re really proud of and excited about and grateful for in your life right now. Hopefully it will be both.

Really answer the questions fully and feel what you feel when you get your answers.

If nothing clear pops into your mind… just keep asking the same question until something comes up.

I encourage you to put the answers down in your journal and to really start noticing how wealth starts expanding in your life. It’s about mastering your focus, so make sure you do it, even if it feels a bit woo-woo.

Step 3 – DESTROY YOUR DEBT

Put in place a simple debt-destruction plan.

Commit to it and make it as automatic as possible.

There are various debt destruction strategies. I like the snowball method . Go here to read an article on exactly how to create a powerful debt destruction plan.

Step 4 – RELAX

Relax, breathe… and know that by having a debt destruction plan in place – and by your commitment to stick to it and destroy your debt – you can now focus on creating wealth.

Step 5 – WEALTH FLOWS

Learn about money – how it works, how it grows – and start looking at the way you have been managing it.

Determine what your money flows have been in the past. What has got you where you are now?

With that understanding, change your money flows to wealth flows that enable money to stay in your life and grow.

Step 6 – PAY YOURSELF FIRST

Start paying yourself first.

What this means is: start allowing money to stay in your life by starting both a savings plan and an investing plan.

One of the things I always get asked is…

❝ Shouldn’t I put all my money
into clearing my debts first? ❞

No. What you need to do is create new money habits.

You must create the habit of investing at the same time as you destroy your debt.

As I said – energy flows where focus goes. And if you only focus on your debt, debt is all you will know.

Part of breaking a habit is replacing it with a new one – and your new wealth habit is investing.

The great thing about investing is you are still buying stuff – except now you buy things that feed you, not starve you. If you don’t do this you won’t break the debt habit. Even if you clear all your debt you are likely to go back into debt if you haven’t created a new investing habit.

The very first part of Paying Yourself First is to build up a cash emergency fund.

This is a stash of cash to be used on Life’s To Be Expected—Unexpected Events. Having this in place before you start your debt blitzing ensures you don’t have to go into debt when one of these events happens – because they will!

Step 7 – FOCUS

With your money now being given great leadership by you, your focus on bringing more in will become self-fulfilling. The more you focus on what you want in your life, the more you will create it.

Head over to our Wealth Chef Community Page (it’s free to join) and let me know how it goes. See what others are saying and share your wins and your sandbars. There are lots of people in the same boat, you don’t have to be alone in your campaign to destroy debt.