For example I went golfing early one Monday morning. Tee times were at 6:00 am. To be on time I had to get up at 5:00 am, no problem. During the round my friend and I were laughing about how easily we got up and how much energy we had to hit the floor running. Yet I contrasted that with the previous Monday when I had to head to the office; hitting the snooze button again at 6:30 am struggling to get out the door and to the office by 8:30 am.



Another example, sporting events, billions of people every year spend countless hours watching and playing basketball, baseball, football, soccer, hockey and loving every minute of it. Or the skier who skips work to brave sub freezing temperature, snow, and wind to pay money for equipment and ski passes to speed down the mountain. You get the picture.

Most of us watch or play without any hope of reward for gold medals, high paying endorsement contracts, or glory.

On the surface you might just say playing is fun and exciting and that is why we do it? How can we harness this magical energy that drives us to play?

If you could unlock this secret, how effective could you be if you could transfer the excitement and enthusiasm of play to jobs that seem like drudgery! Author Charles Coonradt in his book the Game of Work delved deeper to find out exactly why we work so hard at play. He said,

1. In play we have a clearly defined goal.

2. In play we keep score

3. In play we get frequent feedback

4. In play participants have a high degree of choice

5. In play the rules don’t change in the middle of the game.

For example if you were playing or watching basketball.

1.The goal is to win. The pros have 1 hour of playing time to accomplish this goal.

2. A basket is worth one, two, or three points.

3. As soon as one team scores everyone knows where they stand and how much time is left.

4. No one will make you play or watch basketball. You choose to enjoy it or not.

5.And the rules don’t change in the middle of the game, the referees don’t score a two point dunk as a one point play because the player made it look too easy.

So how does all this relate to winning in finances? Specifically getting out of debt?

Well if you are like most American households most of us fall down on the first three.

* Do you have a written financial goal of exactly what you want, where you stand, and how much longer you have to get there?

* Do you review a written financial statement on a weekly or monthly basis?

* Without the first two, how could you ever get exact feedback? You never know if you are winning or losing.

If you avoid your financial statement because it makes you feel tired, irritable, or hopeless then keep reading because with a small investment of time you can change this frustration into an exciting, fulfilling, and a winning game.

It is human nature to become discouraged and quit when there is no hope of winning but tracking little victories will lead to big results because you employ the magic of momentum to help you win.

Have you ever been watching a basketball team that was getting totally clobbered during the first part of the game and then come back to win? Usually they start making a little progress by cutting into the lead point after point then as they keep it up something magical called momentum kicks in. Emotional electricity vibrates through the air, fans jump off their seats screaming and cheering, and players compete with renewed vigor. Just when winning seemed like an impossible feat with the power of momentum defeat turns into a victory.

Here is what you can do today to create momentum and guarantee yourself a win (freedom form debt.)

This technique has been referred to as the ‘snowball effect’ line up your debts from lowest balance to highest balance, freedom from debt becomes the goal and this is your monthly score card that you will update each month.

There is a free program you can download that will do this for you at www.AdvocateBiweekly.com

With this software your hope will be renewed when you see how quickly you can be debt free without changing your expenses. If you have a few payments on credit cards, auto loans, lines of credit, and home loans you will be amazed, trust me, my 30 year debt plan went down to 132 months and it didn’t cost me nothing but 5-10 minutes of my time.

The next step is to plan out rewards for each debt that you pay off, celebrating victories is what winners do. It could be as simple as a night out, a game of golf, whatever your fancy is choose something to reward yourself.

AdvocateBiweekly.com put an interesting twist to debt relief using these principles they keep score by emailing you your average monthly savings and then they motivate you by giving you a 5 days/ 4 nights hotel accommodations in Hawaii on your one year anniversary. If you make a score card, keep score, and reward yourself with each small victory I guarantee you will quickly win your financial game.