Patience is a Virtue
As many of you will know, my journey to debt freedom began back in January 2009. I have been diligently working to pay off my debt since then, and now that the end of the tunnel is in sight, surely it should be time for inward celebration? After all, in a maximum of two months time I will be entirely debt free.
In reality, I am more frustrated now than I have been at any point in the long, arduous road to a positive net worth. I sat down to try and work out just why that is.
In the beginning, it was fun finding places to make cuts in my budget. After 4 months I had pared down my outgoings to their absolute barest minimums. There is now not a realistic penny left to be shaved without going totally insane or malnourished along the way. I enjoyed seeing the balances come down. I enjoyed working overtime to make it happen faster. I enjoyed the mental challenge of not spending a single penny on myself unless it was absolutely necessary and budgeted for.
In my overtime quest, I have just spent 7 days away from home working 15 hour days and being accommodated at night for a few hours before getting up and doing it all over again and again and again. The days were long. I missed my family. I did nothing but work and sleep.
The money will be good when it comes in, but I am now completed exhausted, mentally and physically.
I have one day off before returning to my ‘normal’ work tomorrow.
I am frustrated because no matter how hard I work now, I remain in debt until the numbers come together in one or two months time. I am so close, yet so far away.
I find myself wishing for 2 months to just fly by so I can finally say “I am debt free!”.
In our lives we are constantly striving toward one or more goals. These vary from person to person and life-stage to life-stage. I strive to be debt free; others strive to buy their first home. You may be striving for some other target.
The one thing that remains the absolute same, regardless of what you are striving for, is that it is a future event. You require the passage of time for it to come to fruition. We are ultimately wishing our lives away to reach an arbitrary goal that constitutes only one portion of our ultimately very short lives.
I vow, here and now, to stop ’striving to be debt free’.
I am striving for one target, and one target alone.
To live every day to the maximum it can be.
Enjoy the sunrise if you are fortunate enough to be awake. Help others in your day as you would like to be helped. Treat others as you would like to be treated. Make the most of time with friends and family. Appreciate the sunset each day.
Do not desire the passing of time to achieve your goals. By all means celebrate it when the event arrives, but not to the detriment of everything and everyone around you. I will be debt free. I will be a home-owner. You will achieve whatever it is you are striving to achieve in time.
Live your life by its journey, not its final destination.
Why should you wish away 2 months or 2 years or 2 decades of your life to reach a goal? When one goal is out of the way, you will replace it with another and then another. All events that will occur in the future, and each requiring your patience to achieve it.
Patience is a virtue, and it is the journey that matters.
Others will not judge you on what you achieve, but who you were whilst getting there.
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You’re absolutely right about this Lee. As another example, I have been frustrated by the housing market for a good ten years, and deliberately sitting it out (renting) for around five years – a move that has not paid off so far!
Years have gone by on this quest against over-valued housing, and too often it’s influenced my life in other ways – from putting things off until my house is bought (everything from growing vegetables to dinner parties) to futile pondering about how ‘well’ I am doing (or not!), when I see nearly all my friends owning property, forgetting that renting and investing the difference has been a solid strategy I *have* stuck to, even if the torrid markets haven’t made life easy either.
Anyway, the point was a year has become five years, and I can’t deny I forget the journey was the business of life at times. Good reminder.
At the risk of being proved wrong (again!), I still firmly believe our house prices are due for a massive downward correction over the next 1-4 years. I know my “10 Predictions” post was very doomsday, but I can really foresee the majority of it happening. Check out Prediction 10 again in particular!
But, despite your own situation, renting has enabled you to do other things. Just don’t forget to enjoy the journey as well as the ultimate destination.
Lee
Thanks for imparting a great lesson. Your article made me retrospective about my own life and goals as well.