One simple way to change the way you look at your student loan balance

August’s student loan total -$16,742 owed or should I say $43,258 PAID?

This month I started a book called “The Big Leap” and just a few chapters in I’ve found a concept that can be pretty useful in the way I look at student loans.

The book’s main goal is to help you recognize your inner limits and readjust your mind to experience longer periods of happiness and fulfillment in money, love and health. Gay Hedrick’s theory is that we all have “Upper Limits,” an internal thermometer that dictates our happiness & success threshold. When we hit that limit we tend to act out in ways that return us to where we feel most comfortable in our happiness — but that comfort limit is NOT our highest point of joy or contentment. One of the ways to break through this limit is by training our minds and bodies to focus on the positive for longer periods of time.

Here’s an example from daily life. You wake up with a loooong to do list of work, chores and errands. By the time 3 pm hits your internal dialogue goes something like this:

“Crap! It’s already 3 pm? I still have so much to do! I will never get this stuff done.”

The Big Leap thinks you can reframe the same information and have a really different experience:

“3pm already? Ok cool, no problem. I already got 70% of my list done. YES! That’s a lot of stuff and I can probably find other ways to do the 30% that are not so urgent.”

The trick is savoring all that you have accomplished and focus on those positive feelings for as long as possible.

How does this apply to student loans?

I can’t tell you how many years, months, days and hours I have focused on the remaining balance of my student loans. The internal dialogue goes something like this:

“Ugh, another month. I STILL owe $20,000. Twenty. Thousand. Dollars. That is so much money. What am I going to do? How will I get rid of this balance? Paying this every month sucks. I’ll never get this done.”

If you reframe this Big Leap style, the dialogues goes more like.

“Ok, good. Another month. Another payment. I’m getting there. Every month I’m making progress. My balance was $60,000 and now I only owe $20K. That means I’ve paid $40,000. Me! I’ve paid $40K through sheer will, side-hustlin’ and discipline. I’m actually pretty badass and I can’t wait to throw that student loan pay off party!”

Does this help?

Yes, mostly, is what I am finding. But there are a few things to note.

1. If you’ve been a debbie downer about student loans like I have for years, this new way of thinking takes practice. Lots of it!
2. Remember this isn’t going to make money rain out of the sky to put toward your loans. This is about reducing anxiety around your loans and moving toward feelings of accomplishment.
3. This really helps you give yourself credit where credit is due, which DOES increase motivation to find more money to pay off your loans. Or at least it does for me.
4. Why? By kicking the defeated mindset to the curb, I have more energy to find ways for making or saving money toward my student loans. I’m energized instead of drained.

Here’s what thought comes next…

“If I can pay off $40K in student loans I can sure as hell pay off $20K. It might take time but I’m 2/3 of the way there.”

And that is something I really do believe, Big Leap or not.