When Amy and I were paying off our debt I knew it would take us a couple of years to finally retire all of it. As I mentioned in a previous post, it was reading Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover that first inspired us to do it. However keeping going for two years would take continual reinforcement as I am easily distracted and discouraged. Seeing progress always helps and as one of our debts disappeared, that kept me going for a few months. Still I knew that I could fall into old habits if I wasn’t careful. So I looked for inspiration and found it in the blog Get Rich Slowly.

In his blog, J. D. chronicled his progress in getting out of debt, inspired similarly by Dave Ramsey’s book among others. I had found a kindred spirit as we were similar in age and tastes and were engaged in the same process. So every day I’d check his blog. He would write about a struggle he was having or some neat advice he uncovered. Essentially it was daily reinforcement for me to keep on going.

Soon J.D. wrote about finally retiring the last of his debt and I felt a small pang of jealousy as I was still working on removing the last part of my student loan. Still I could imagine the feeling of accomplishment he had by reaching this milestone. My jealousy was short-lived however, as my wife and I reached our goal as well. I felt that J.D. and I had a kinship born of a shared struggle, even though we had never actually corresponded directly.

I still read his blog because it is well written and inspires me to continue on the path I’m on. It also reinforces to me that it is important to seek like-minded inspiration when you are undergoing a trial. For instance if you want to lose weight, it is much easier when you hang out with people also interested in losing weight as you tend to motivate each other. It has a way of building up momentum and keeping you focused on your desired outcome.

The beauty of the internet is that there is probably someone blogging about the very thing you wish to stay focused on. So whatever you are interested in, seek out like-minded folks and use them to keep your motivation up. It will make the journey much easier and can only help you meet your goal.