Rome wasn’t built in a day or so I have been told on numerous occasions. I’ve heard that phrase so often that I’ve never really stopped to think about what it meant. However in the years that I have been in debt that saying has rung in my ears more and more.
To get something done and I mean really and truly get something done, it takes time. The bigger the goal the more time it will take. Getting out of debt is no different. The bigger the mountain of debt the longer it will take to climb it. Make no mistake about that last sentence. The bigger the debt the longer the time.
I suppose at this point I could add that if you can’t do the time don’t do the crime i.e. don’t take on so much debt in the first place. But I think at this stage we are beyond those clichéd arguments. We need helpful ideas and not more annoying rhetoric.
So now that we have a debt mountain to climb or if you prefer we have the city of Rome to build, we need to start getting real. Getting real and keeping it real. That’s not some misplaced lingo from my youth but rather a nod to the need to be present in the moment and not off in some dream world where credit card debt doesn’t exist.
Debt repayment takes time. Once again for the people at the back, debt repayment takes time. Unfortunately if you are in debt then time is probably all that you have. But in away time is all you really need – time and the application of a hard work ethic.
Hard work
This phrase has always confused me. Is hard work purely of the physical type for example working in construction? Or can the term ‘hard work’ be applied to an office job? Do you have to end the day physically exhausted for it to qualify as hard work?
I think that the term hard work really applies to productivity. If you are productive and get a lot of things done then I think you would be regarded as a hard worker. So for me hard work equates to the ability to get a lot of things done in a certain period of time.
But being productive isn’t about working in a blind fury and using blunt force to get things done in the shortest possible time. To me being productive incorporates a determined work effort by default but there is also a huge element of working smart involved.
Working Smart
Again this is another one of those management phrases bandied about so much that it has almost lost its currency. To me working smart means the ability to leverage, delegate and also ignore what is unimportant. In other words it means using your brains and knowledge to make sure that the right person is doing the right thing at the right time. That person could be you or it could be your work colleagues.The point is that if someone can do the job better, quicker and more efficiently than you then get them to do the job.
Do not make the mistake of thinking that working smarter simply applies to your working life. Far from it. The most benefit you can get from working smarter is in your personal life. There are dozens if not hundreds of ways that the average person can work smarter in their personal life – everything from streamlining their finances to streamlining how they arrange their sleeping habits.
Back to the debt problem
Working hard and working smart brings with it the obvious benefits of being more in control of your life. The harder and smarter you work the quicker the things you want out of life will come to you. There can be no doubting that. I’m sure that the things you have already achieved in your life have been built on working hard and being smart about how you work.
So far so great – working harder and smarter seems to be the cure all solution to life’s problems. If only it was as easy as that. You see if you are already working hard and working smart the chances are that will not have much of a debt problem if at all. The reason why is that you will have spotted the error of your ways and worked harder and smarter to repay your debts. If this is you then there is no point in reading on as you seem to be winning. Keep up the good work.
What about the rest of us mere mortals? The rest of us mere mortals probably comprises about 97% of the population. We are the ones who have the words “can do better” marked all over our report card.
How to work harder and smarter
There is a thing called work ethic which will make a huge impact on your life and in particular your financial situation. This definition of work ethic is taken from Wikipedia:
Work ethic is a set of values based on the moral virtues of hard work and diligence. It is also a belief in the moral benefit of work and its ability to enhance character.
Workers exhibiting a good work ethic in theory (and ideally in practice) should be selected for better positions, more responsibility and ultimately promotion. Workers who fail to exhibit a good work ethic may be regarded as failing to provide fair value for the wage the employer is paying them and should not be promoted or placed in positions of greater responsibility.
Or more simply put – work harder and smarter to get paid more or get a better paying job which in turn will help you payoff your debt quicker.
Developing a good work ethic is the key to moving out of debt and towards greater financial security. The great think about work ethic is that it is a learned habit. It is not something we inherit or that is part of our physcial or mental make up. IT IS A LEARNED HABIT. Sorry for raising my voice but the point that I am trying to make is crucial. Too many people go through their lives thinking that they can never do better or they simply don’t know how to do better. The beautiful thing about life is that we can always learn ways to improve and do better.
Work ethic is a learned habit which means that you or I or anyone who is willing to learn can develop a strong work ethic.
Again developing a strong work ethic takes time but the benefits are enormous. To develop a strong work ethic simply ‘work all the time you work’. In other words all the time that you are physcially present at your place of work – make sure that you are working. By all means take your lunch and coffee breaks but at all other times make sure that you are working on the tasks that add most values.
I don’t want this article to desend too far into a discussion on better ways to work. There are plenty of excellent resources out there on the web that will allow you to improve how you work. The key thing for you is that you try to develop a strong work ethic.
A natural extension of the work ethic debate is the habit of saving. Saving and work ethic usually go hand in hand. If you have the discipline necessary to develop a strong work ethic then you almost by default will be more inclined to be financially disciplined. The principles that you need for a strong work ethic are the same ones you need to develop the savings habit.
If you think about it logically if you work harder it makes sense that you will want to keep more of what you earn.
So you want out of debt fast?
Here’s how. Develop a strong work ethic by working harder and smarter in your current job (it doesn’t matter what your job is) then after a while you should see the benefits of your hard work – more overtime, pay rise, bonus etc. With this extra earnings you can pay down your debt faster.
No I didn’t say it was going to be easy to do. If it was easy then everyone would be doing it. There is also a large element of delayed gratification that I didn’t cover in this article that makes all the difference. The key thing to take away from this article is that there is a very straightforward way out of debt staring you in the face.